Sermon Tone Analysis

*Conversing With God*

(Ephesians 3:14-15)

 

A writer was researching a book on American churches and in the process he visited a San Francisco cathedral and noticed a golden telephone on the wall with a sign: $10,000 per minute.

"It’s a direct line to heaven," the pastor explained.

"For that price, a caller can speak to God personally."

The author noticed similar phones with $10,000 price tags at many other churches -- in Boise, Minneapolis, Chicago, Denver.

When he got to Dallas, he saw a golden phone, but this time the sign said 25 cents per minute.

He asked the pastor, "Reverend, I’ve found many golden phones with direct lines to heaven, but they all cost $10,000.

How come yours is only 25 cents?"

"Well, son, you’re in Texas now," the pastor said.

"From here, it’s a local call."

Access to God is a fantastic privilege, and I can tell you that the Apostle Paul was not going to let that privilege go to waste.

He prayed in chapter 1 of Ephesians for the /individual/ needs of those believers.

Now, in chapter 3 he is going to pray a wonderful prayer – perhaps the peak of the whole of Scripture – for the /corporate /needs of this church – a prayer that in daily life they live up to the reality of who they are in Christ.

Today we want to look at verses 14-15 which are introductory, but valuable in their example.

They instruct us how to maximize the priceless gift of unlimited, uninterrupted complete access to the Father.

*I.

** Use It*

* *

The most common “gotcha” about prayer is this: we talk a lot about prayer – and don’t do it very much.

So, the very first thing this passage teaches us about maximizing our access to the Father is this – USE IT!  Don’t just talk about it *– /do it!/*

Paul did.

Paul wasn’t satisfied to tell them they had access to the Father – he */exmplified /*it.

This, I think, really escaped me when I was younger, but here in the first three doctrinal chapters of arguably the finest and most elevated book of the Bible, there are two great prayers of Paul.

Out of a total of 67 verses, 17 of them – almost exactly 25% are devoted to praying.

Tell me honestly that if you had been writing to the Ephesians you would have spent 25% of the theological section of your letter devoted to recording your prayers on their behalf?

We just don’t think that way, do we?

We’d be off teaching, instructing, advising – but surely not wasting time praying!

I am deeply afraid that access to God our Father is the one golden opportunity in all this world that is most squandered.

It is largely unused.

But it should not be so.

Let’s face it, we all have burdens that have gone beyond our ability to do anything about physically.

It may be financial issues that have gone off track.

It may be children who will not listen, will not accept advice, are too far away to help or whatever.

It may be concern for the health of loved ones in distant places.

Whatever it is, we all have it – issues of concern that have gone outside our control.

Paul had that exact same situation.

Here he was in prison in Rome – entering his fifth year in captivity – years during which he had not been able to be about his normal ministry.

He could not preach, teach or reach his beloved churches personally or physically.

But here is what Paul also knew.

He knew that through prayer, he had the means of reaching out and touching */anyone, anywhere and at anytime.

/*Prison bars set a boundary on him physically, but they could not in any way prevent his influence in a much mightier way through prayer.

And so for us, no circumstance, no illness, no barrier of space or time can keep us from helping, influencing, being a catalyst to those we love, frankly whether they want it or not (!) –/if we will only spend the time and energy and *work *to be in God’s throneroom with our Father.

/We just have to believe it is so and do it!

Beloved, let’s use the gift.

Let’s become people of prayer.

* *

A city slicker moved to a farm and bought a cow.

Shortly after, the cow went dry.

A farmer, who got word of this, expressed surprise.

The city man said he was surprised too.

“I can’t understand it, for if a person ever was considerate of an animal, I was of that cow.

If I didn’t need any milk, I didn’t milk her.

If I only needed a quart, I took only a quart.”

The farmer then had explained to the city fellow that the only way to keep milk flowing is not to take as /little/ as possible from the cow, but to take as /much/ as possible.

Step one in maximizing the gift of access to the Father – use it.

*II.

** Use it Reverently*

* *

Step 2 is – use it reverently.

Look at verse 14, “For this reason I */bow my knees before/* the Father.”

This phrase emphasizes two things – reverence and urgency.

Let’s talk about reverence first.

Taking an eternal perspective, direct access to God the Father is bigger than any other access you can ever have, including access to your boss, to the president of your company, to the head of your association, to your congressman, senator, governor or President Obama.

Direct access to God is of /far/ greater import than /any/ of those connections.

That is why it is so emphasized in the Bible – even to the point that we are invited to address our Father as Abba, Daddy, the most intimate and endearing term available to the New Testament writers – a term that absolutely blew away the first century people who heard it, so familiar did it sound.

It was the term that Jesus Christ himself used to address his father in Mark 14:36 when in the intensity of the throes of his struggle in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before he was crucified, he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you.

Remove this cup from me.

Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

Abba – my beloved Father, help me.

And Paul turns right around in Romans 8:15 and again in Galatians 4:6 and says, “And /because/ */you/* are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba!

Father!”  Isn’t it unbelievable that because of the shed blood of Christ we may address the Father in the same terms Christ did?  It’s incredible.

Endearment does not, however, mean flip or casual.

I addressed my father as Dad, but I can assure you I never did it with the “Hey, man, what’s going on, man” casualness that I might address a brother or friend.

When Paul urged us to address the Father as Abba, he didn’t mean we should approach him casually.

God isn’t inviting us to be his Buddy!

He’s inviting us to be his beloved sons and daughters, with all the respect and reverence that implies.

I think I mentioned the pastor who got up one Sunday and as he was walking across the stage with eyes open began his prayer by saying, “Hey, God.”  Folks, to me that’s close to blasphemy.

But I suspect we have all at times been equally guilty of approaches that emphasize /access/, but miss /reverence/.

How /dare /we take the term of endearment by which Jesus addressed His Father as he faced spiritual death for us and turn it into an excuse for a lighthearted entrance to the throneroom!

Paul bowed his knees out of respect.

That is not to say that the position itself is important.

People prayed in many positions in the Bible, including standing, sitting, and kneeling.

They prayed from lion’s dens, fiery furnaces, behind bars and in the belly of a great fish.

The position is irrelevant, but I think that in all cases the /spirit/ was bowed.

I will say this, I agree with one commentator who said, “The slouching position of the body while one is supposed to be praying is an abomination to the Lord.

On the other hand, it is also true that Scripture nowhere prescribes one, and only one, correct posture.”

I think he’s right.

Position is a matter of indifference, /unless/ it reflects a /casualness of spirit/.

Let me drive this home a bit further here.

Look again at our verse, verse 14, “For this reason I bow my knees /before/ the Father.”

Note the little word “before”.

It is the Greek word /pros/.

Now – turn with me to John 1:1.

You need to see this.  “ In the beginning was the Word (Christ), and the Word was /with/ God, and the Word was God.”  See the little word “with” – same exact Greek word, /pros/ that we have in Ephesians 1:18.

The word “face” is derived from this word.

John is literally saying in John 1:1 that Christ, prior to his incarnation, was face-to-face with God the Father, and now, and this should blow us away, Paul is saying that in prayer we are literally face-to-face with God the Father.

Absorb that for a moment.

I’ll tell you this, when we see people come face-to-face with God in Scripture, they aren’t waltzing in with, “Hey God.”

When Isaiah saw God high and lifted up and Isaiah 6, his comment was, “Woe is me, for I am lost and a man of unclean lips.”

John, who knew Jesus intimately, fell to the ground as though dead when he came face-to-face with the Father in Rev. 1.  So, did Paul.

Listen, it’s a big deal to come face-to-face with God and that is what happens every time we pray.

That ought to adjust our attitude and our spirit.