Steve Hopkins' sermon 'Constant in Prayer' focuses on Romans 12:12, emphasizing the importance of maintaining a steadfast prayer life as a believer. Hopkins highlights the interconnectedness of rejoicing in hope, being patient in tribulations, and continuing steadfastly in prayer. He underscores that prayer is not only a practice but a vital means of sustaining spiritual energy and cultivating joy and patience amidst life's challenges. Referencing historical theologians like Haldane and Hodge, Hopkins argues that prayer is the remedy against fatigue in trials and a means to receive grace and strength. He further reflects on the concept of a 'remembrance book' to document God's mercies and answered prayers, encouraging believers to maintain a constant dialogue with God. The sermon also delves into how God uses trials, relationships, and even prosperity to drive believers to a deeper reliance on Him through prayer. Hopkins closes by encouraging congregational prayer and individual intercession for one another, illustrating how prayer fosters love and unity within the church community.

Good afternoon again. Let's turn on our Bibles once again to the book of Romans. We're going to be continuing this afternoon with our study of chapter 12. And actually we're just going to be looking at one verse today chapter 12 verse 12 so if you would stand with me please for the reading of the infallible inerrant all-sufficient Word of the Lord Follow along as I read. Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer.

Let's pray. Father, Gracious God, immortal, invisible, God only wise, we praise God your power and your eternity. There is no God above you, there is no God below you, there is no God beside you. All the gods of the nations are but idols, but you made the heavens and the earth your majesty Oh God is incomparable Father We thank you for your grace given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. How we praise you, God, and thank you for giving us the gift of your Son for so great a Savior and so great a salvation.

Now, Lord, we ask that the Holy Spirit may be given once again in power to minister the Word to your people for your glory and for the glory of the name of your son and the building up of his church in His most holy and blessed name in the name of Jesus. Amen Let's be seated The title of the message today is, Continuing Steadfastly in Prayer. Before we launch into the text before us, I want you to think for a moment about what is going on in this building right now. Think about what's going on in this building right now. We have come together to meet with the living God.

In Hebrews chapter 12, the writer of Hebrews tells us that when we gather for worship, we are joining with the joyful assembly of angels and with the spirits of just men made perfect in heaven in the worship of God. That we are not come when we come to worship to that mount that is set on fire and burning. We've not come to Mount Sinai where the law was given, to the mount that could not be touched without being struck dead, where blackness and darkness and billows of smoke and thunder and lightning terrify us because of the presence of God. No, we are come unto Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, into the heavenly sanctuary where Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, has gone on before us and entered the veil and sprinkled His blood upon the mercy seat, and where we join with the joyful assembly of angels and with the spirits of just men made perfect in the worship of God. That's what's going on here right now in this gathering of the Church of Jesus, the firstborn.

And in every church that is around the world today, We are meeting with God in the presence of God and of angels in a communion with the saints of heaven. Not quaking, not quaking in fear at the borders of Sinai's burning mountain, but with confidence and with boldness and in joyful praise because the blood of our Jesus has been sprinkled on the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies and atoned for our sins. Christ Jesus, the mediator of the New Covenant, our Savior, brings us into the presence with shouts of joy as the psalmist said. Ain't it wonderful to put it in Texas terms? So as we actually begin the message here on Romans 12 12, our family has been rewatching the first episodes of Little House on the Prairie series over the past couple of weeks.

How many have ever seen Little House on the Prairie? Especially the early ones, okay. One of the lines from each of the first episodes that's really struck me is where Laura Engel says, if I had a remembrance book, it's like in the first three or four episodes, if I had a remembrance book, I would mark down how it was when we left our little house in the big woods to go into Indian territory. That's one line. Another time she says, if I had a remembrance book, I would surely write down, and then she talks about the day when they came to Plum Creek and all the experiences of their family, the joys, the sorrows, the struggles, the happy times, the sad times, and all the things they went through together.

And I was thinking in meditating on the passage here before us, if I had a remembrance book, I would mark down all the mercies of God that I've been shown and that our family has been shown over the years and over the course of our lives. And above all, if I had a remembrance book, I would document the many prayers our Lord has so graciously answered. And I can't begin really to count or to number them the prayers that have been answered over the years, and I'm sure it's the same for for every one of you. Our gracious Father in heaven has answered so many prayers, and I think you know it's not a bad idea to have a remembrance book to go back and look back at to remind us that God hears our prayers and to jar our memories to thank Him again. When our children were younger, Sandra and I, they had these little books.

They were little prayer journal books, and they would have prayers that were answered, and I guess some of that kind of faded out over the years, but it was such a wonderful thing. But for Sandra and I, so many times tribulation, troubles were the catalyst for those prayers that were answered. Again, when I was meditating on verse 12 here, it seemed to me that the apostle put these three things close together here because there's such a need for us to see the connection between hope and perseverance in trials and tribulation and prayer. Rejoicing in hope, Paul says, and continuing steadfastly in prayer. We patiently endure the pain and the trials of the troubles of life.

I love Robert Haldane, Scottish theologian from the 1800s. Unceasing and linking all these together, unceasing continuance in prayer is the best remedy against fatigue when we're facing the trials and troubles and challenges of this life. We are in prayer, we are supplied with new vigor. We talked in our last session about the hope that we have in Christ, how we can be joyful even in the midst of the most trying circumstances of life because of the certainty of our hope of our final salvation. That no matter what the pain is that we may be enduring in the present.

We can rejoice because our hope rests on the promises of God concerning the future, because our hope is anchored in heaven where Christ is, and we know that where he is we soon shall be. But communing with our Lord in prayer is where rejoicing in this hope and patient endurance are cultivated. Communion with our Lord in prayer is where we get our tanks refilled with fuel, where we get re-energized, where we receive fresh supplies of grace, and where from Christ we draw strength for the battle that is ahead. We need to be constant in prayer. We need to be continuing steadfastly in prayer.

Communing with our Lord in prayer is where reliance on the Lord, on our Lord is put into practice. By constant prayer, we are practicing this reliance, and we will be supplied with new vigor and strength. Rejoicing in hope, we patiently endure, continuing steadfastly in prayer. Charles Hodge, Princeton theologian, agrees, these exhortations to be joyful, patient, and prayerful, They are related duties. They are closely related duties.

In other words, you cannot separate them. Joy, patience, prayer go hand in hand. When we closed last Sunday, Nate's closing prayer, I went back and I kind of just documented his prayer, kind of quoted him here a little bit. It's just, I thought, so encapsulated everything from last week, so well, he said, he prayed that we would dwell on and survey the cross of Christ. Think on the suffering of God's Son in our place and this great debt of sin that was paid for, that we could never pay, and that we would dwell on not only His death but on the resurrection of Christ, on the completion of His work and its acceptance in God's sight, and that it would fill us with joy and with that hope as we think on Christ's resurrection as the first fruits of the coming resurrection when God will complete our salvation and our bodies will be redeemed.

And I stopped there, close quote. This is what fills the Christian with joy and hope, dwelling or meditating on the cross, our sin debt paid, Christ's resurrection from the dead, the completion of Christ's work of our redemption, and our future resurrection at the coming of Christ. I quoted again Haldane, our hope is so certain and sure that we rejoice for that happiness as if we were already there. Our minds are quiet and settled and we have great joy because of the heavenly inheritance that awaits us. Again Hodge, rejoicing on account of hope in the expectation of future good, this hope of salvation is the most effectual means of producing patience under present afflictions.

For if we feel the sufferings of this present time, this is the words of the apostle Paul, are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us, it will not be difficult to bear the things we suffer in this life patiently. But then listen to what Hodge follows with right after that, the same thing I said a moment ago. Intercourse or communion with God in prayer, communing with the Lord in prayer, is necessary to the exercise of this. And so the Apostle immediately adds continuing instant or constant or steadfastly, depending on your version, in prayer. Rejoicing in hope, we patiently endure continuing steadfastly in prayer.

There is no way, You know, we've been looking at these rapid-fire commands, you know, from verse 9 through 21. It's just totally out of character for Paul. It's systematic in its theology, and everything is systematized. And then we get up to this chapter 12 in verse 9, all of a sudden this rapid-fire command, imperatives, imperatives, imperatives. Do this, do this, do this, do this.

Where there's no way we can carry out the commands that the apostle has set before us in verses nine through 21 without constancy in prayer. The ESV, English Standard Version translates it, be constant in prayer. The KJV renders it continuing instant or urgent in prayer. NKJV, which we are using publicly at this time, steadfastly, unwaveringly in prayer. The idea is that we are constantly praying.

In 1 Thessalonians 5.17, Paul says, pray without ceasing. What does he mean by that? Does he mean pray 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including holidays? No. Paul is saying we need to be in constant communion with God.

Follow along with me here. We need to be in constant communion with God, continually aware of His presence with us throughout the day and at all times, and communicating our thoughts to Him continually throughout the day, the nights we wake up, wherever we are, whatever we're doing, Our thoughts should be communicating with God. If not our words, our verbal words, and our thoughts. You know, no matter what you're doing throughout the day, those household chores, the mundane things of life, on the job, wherever we're at, continually bringing our thoughts back to God and communing with the Lord. Is that your experience?

Sproul, praying without ceasing means that we are to be in a continual state of communion with our Father, to be always conscious of God's presence, relying on Him. I think that's very important to interject there, a continual reliance upon him and communicating with the Father in our thought." Spurgeon, I love Spurgeon, he has this message on this passage here. He comes to a place where he talks about the place where Jesus told Ananias in the vision that he, where he was going to find Peter and go give Peter this message, right? And he says when you find him, he's going to be praying. He's praying right now and go to Him right now.

He said, behold, He is praying. And Spurgeon says, He is praying. Behold, He is praying. The words Jesus told Ananias in his vision, what he'd find Peter doing when he found him, Spurgeon said, He is praying is the very mark of the individual Christian That's kind of the mark it's just What's he doing? Well, he's praying.

It's like we're continually bringing our thoughts back to to God and Communing with him And then he went on to say, as well as, it is also as well where one may best see the unity, the life, and the spirituality of the church prayer. I said a minute ago, Sandra and I, so many times, you know, if we had that book of remembrance or remembrance book or whatever and we wrote down prayers, it would be, we would have to say, we have to admit, you know, many times we were driven to prayer by circumstances of this life, by financial difficulties or by family issues or by what have you. There was something that was driving us more to prayer, a continual prayer. And I was reading MacArthur. MacArthur comments here, doubtless one of the reasons, commenting on this passage, doubtless one of the reasons the Lord allows His children to go through tribulation, okay, so again, linking these verses together, through tribulation is to drive them to Himself, Close quote.

My life experience bears that out. Does yours? How many times have we been driven to the Lord to seek His face, His direction, His comfort because of troubling situations? Again, I don't think I can count the number of times. The Lord allows these, even ordains them to drive us to Himself.

Troubles and afflictions tend to drive us to our knees in prayer. On the other hand, when things are going our way, and you know, golden slippers, everything's going our way, there's this tendency for us to neglect prayer, right? It's interesting how that works. We begin to kind of neglect prayer. Things are going well.

Finances are going well. Relationships are going well. Everything is going well. We tend to neglect prayer. The Puritans used to say, You need to be aware of that tendency.

He said, they used to say, adversity has slain its thousands. Prosperity, it's tens of thousands. Adversity is, you know, it's a Take on the words that the women were singing when, or the ladies were singing when David came back from battle, Saul has slain his thousands, David has slain his thousands, adversity has slain its thousands, prosperity its tens, its ten thousands. Spurgeon said, we shouldn't pray less when we're in times of prosperity, noting that it's harder to carry a full cup without spilling it. Close quote.

But again, when we're in an hour of testing or whatever or temptation, we need to be, that is one of the things that would also drive us to prayer. That's where I was going. That's, it's also something that will drive us to prayer. Not only adversity and affliction, but also times of temptation. And prayer is one of the surest remedies when we find ourselves in an intense battle, the world, the flesh, and the devil under temptation.

Again, the Puritans used to say, sin will keep you from praying, praying will keep you from sinning. It's hard to sin against Jesus when you're on your knees thanking Him for dying for your sins. Sproul, prayer is the secret of holiness if prayer indeed has anything secretive about it. And I would add that to that when that prayer is focused on the bloody cross of our Savior and the price that was paid for our redemption. But again, God uses so many kinds of trials and afflictions to drive us to Himself, doesn't He?

Sometimes the trials we are ordained to patiently endure are relationship, relational, right? Hang with me here. I think family relationships are the most trying, with church relationships coming in a quick second place. But we have to understand that it is our loving Father in heaven who ordains even these for our good. Relationship challenges in our immediate family, in our extended families, as well as challenges with relationships in church family are ordained of God for our good, they're for our good, and for His glory.

They're ordained of God, He brought them about, they're for our good, they're for His glory. They're for our good because they are some of the means by which God provides opportunity to further our sanctification. And that's what we're still here for, right? To bring glory to God and to be made more like Jesus. Okay, so let me just give you a couple of for instances.

In marriage, We have several marriages here. In marriage, for instance, we choose our spouses, right? Yeah, but God ultimately chooses our spouses. It's God who ultimately puts any man and woman together in the bond of marriage. And one reason is so that our particular needs for spiritual growth can be met.

And I think one of The greatest of those needs is the need of every husband and wife to find their ultimate contentment in Christ, not their spouse. This is good pre-marriage counseling here also, Pedro and Hannah, right? A little bit. In the same way with regards to our families, it is God who gave us the children that we have. It's God who gave you that child.

So what's going on with my child? It's God who gave you that child. My dad, he's this. My mom, she's this. There's relationships, stuff.

The parents we have. This brother or sister, if he was different, if she was different, then I could, we could. It's all a part of God's plan for our sanctification. God gave you that family. God gave you that father, that mother, that child, that sibling.

It is to provide us with opportunities to grow in Christ's likeness and in our dependence on Christ, and to get us to that place where our contentment in life is not based on meeting, on others meeting our expectations. Are you frustrated with someone? Irritated with someone? They're not meeting your expectations. Maybe you're not meeting their expectations and They're letting you know you don't meet their expectations And so now they don't meet your they don't meet your expectations because you expect them not to expect you to be like that.

You know what I'm saying? It's the way it is, right? And that's not only in marriage and families, that's also true in our church family relationships. God ordained that person to be in the church family for your good. Who?

Well, just think. I don't know, maybe whoever. For your spiritual growth, God put that person in your church family for you, for your spiritual growth, to help you. Well, I don't receive that, okay, well, maybe the Lord has to impress that upon you. For your spiritual growth, to sanctify you, to make you more like Jesus, to help you get to the place where you are dependent upon, more dependent upon Him, and where you are content just to have Him.

I'm just, I'm content to just have you. But of course, in all of these situations, whether it's marriage or whether it's a family relationships, whether it's church relationships, what is the temptation? The temptation is to withdraw, to withdraw from that spouse, to withdraw from that family member, to withdraw from that church member, or to think, if I only had a better spouse, if I just had a better child, if I just had a better father or mother or better church members, then I would be content. What we should be doing is saying to ourselves, thank you, Lord, for putting these people in my life. Use these relationships, Lord, to help me grow spiritually, to depend more fully upon you and to find my contentment in you Lord Jesus.

Help me. Help me to rejoice and patiently endure and be joyful even if this spouse, this parent, this child, this church member never changes Because you are the source of my joy and my contentment, Lord Jesus, my portion in this life and in the life to come. You came for me, you're coming back for me, you died for me, you rose for me, and that's more than enough to content me. You saved me, and because you did, I'm also going to be raised one day. You were raised and I'll be fully conformed to you.

I'm going to enjoy your face, the joy you face to face forever and dwell in your presence forever. That's enough for me. I'm content. Brothers and sisters, there is no place on earth where the presence of God is more intimately experienced than in communing with our Lord in prayer. In communion, in prayer with the Lord is where rejoicing in hope and patience and tribulation and trials again are cultivated and found to be the sweetest.

God's presence is nowhere more fully experienced on earth than it is when we're in prayer. When we're at prayer, Jesus, you know, Mary's at Jesus' feet. She's content. Martha's not at his feet. She's just disturbed about so many things.

We need to be in constant communion with God, to be constant in our prayer, continually aware of His presence with us and communicating our thoughts to Him continually throughout the day. Praying in private, praying with our spouses. Praying with our spouses. Everyone remembers probably that I've said that told the story a couple times. I've had this conference, I don't know how many years ago, and Joel Beeke, you know, Joel Beeke is speaking.

He's up there on the stage, whatever he says, he says, and you know, he goes, I just, I heard this the other day and I couldn't even believe it. I couldn't believe my ears. He goes, I heard that there were actually some men who don't pray with their wives every day. And I kind of went, I was looking around like, you know, like llamas with their necks stretched out or whatever, I was looking around, I was kind of looking at my wife, feeling embarrassed and everything. Am I the only guy here?

Anyways, it started after that, this daily thing, I want to pray with my wife, I want to pray with my wife. Maybe today's that day where I've said this and you haven't been praying with your wife and you say, you know what, I'm gonna pray with my wife every day, pray with her. Did our prayers be not hindered, what the apostle Paul talks about, that our prayers be not hindered? Okay, so talking about our prayers together. He's assuming that we're praying together every day.

Okay, so when he says, you know, treat your wives this way, honor them as a weaker vessel, that your prayers together won't be hindered. He's assuming that you're praying together. At any rate, Pray in private, pray with our spouses. We need to be continually bringing everything back to prayer, praying with our families, praying with our church, pray with your church when your church gathers for prayer, if you can, if it's possible. Intercede for your wives in prayer.

Intercede for your husbands in prayer. Intercede for your children in prayer. For your grandchildren. Pray for your parents. Pray for your fellow church members.

Pray for your church leaders. Over and over and over again, Paul said, pray for us, pray for us, pray for us. In his apostolic letters to the churches Pray for your church leaders pray for us pray pray for the lost pray for the lost pray for our government Pray for our nation pray for the world continue steadfastly in prayer I've been thinking lately how wonderful it would be if every person, every family in the church were to add to their personal prayer list one family in the church to pray for each week by name. I meant to have the board here. I did have it here, you know, the white board here.

I was gonna show just all of these lines kind of going back and forth between all of these people. Just kind of give a visual picture. What would it be like If everyone in your prayer, you know, your prayer time, you say, you know what, I pray in the morning, I pray in the evening, whatever, I'm bringing my thoughts back to the Lord during the day, but in my actual set-apart time of prayer with the Lord, I'm gonna add one family in the church or one person, let's say one household, because some are single households, in the church. And I'm going to add that person, that family, to my list for this week. Maybe you can't pray for every person by name every day as elders and pastors do that are in the church, but you could maybe take one family and say, you know what, I'm gonna pray for this, we're gonna pray for this family this week.

We'll just pray for them. And then they're doing that for you and just think of how amazing that would be to have this kind of prayer going on where you know others are praying for your family, others in the church, and they've got you on that list, and they're gonna get to you, it might not be this week, they're gonna get to you, and you're gonna get to them, and you're gonna pray for everyone. Think of how wonderful that would be. It engenders closeness and intimacy and concern for the circumstances of others in the body. You know Romans 12 5, we back up a few verses here, what does Paul say?

We being many are one body in Christ and individually members one of another. And brotherly love, of course, is still the context. And being members one of another, continually, steadfastly in prayer for one another, continuing steadfastly in prayer for one another is an act of that love, of that brotherly love. So as we close, Jesus prayed for the church while he was on earth. John 17, 9, high priestly prayer, I pray for them.

I pray not for the world, " says Jesus, but for them whom you have given me. You've given me out of the world. He's continually interceding for us now at the Father's right hand. We here in Christ are united to Him by faith and are united in a bond that can't be broken, and He's going to preserve us to the end. His intercession guarantees that, but He's praying for us.

And I think In our continual, steadfast, constant prayer, we need to be remembering to pray for others. Jesus' intercession, by the way, for us guarantees our final victory. He's praying for us. I don't know, we can't guarantee anything for anyone by praying for them, but God hears our prayers and we know that He answers our prayers, and we've seen it over the years and over the decades. It's the 30th year this church has been alive.

We've seen it. But His intercession guarantees our final victory. The history of Christianity is a history of sinners saved by grace whose greatest desire is to live for their wonderful, wonderful Savior who shed His blood to redeem them from all iniquity, who rose again for their justification. It's the history of a people who long just long to serve Jesus, not to obtain their salvation but a gratitude for the free gift of it. The love of Christ, the love of Christ for us propels us.

The love of Christ compels us to joyful, loving service, obedience, and His love working in us and through us through the power of the adwelling Holy Spirit empowers us more and more to love others as He loves us. So as we close, let us rejoice in hope. Let us be patient in tribulation and constant in prayer. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that we can cry Abba, Father, because of the adoption won for us by our Lord Jesus, because of His death and resurrection and His intercession.

Oh Lord, we know that our final redemption is secure. Abba, Father, we thank You. And we thank You, Lord, that when we seek to put the things that we've learned here today into practice, and we seek to continue steadfast in prayer and constant in prayer, We thank You, God, that when we're…that's our heart's desire, but yet the words don't come, that we are assured by Your Word, O God, that the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings that can't even be expressed in words. We thank You for the Spirit, and we thank You, God, that we can come boldly to the throne of grace in prayer and having boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Oh God, we can bring our petitions before You and commune with You throughout the day, every day, in constant and continual communion with You.

Oh Lord, now give us grace, God, as we go on our ways, our various ways, give us grace to rest in Christ in what He has done for us and to be constant in prayer as we go, for we ask it in Jesus' name, Amen.