How We Should Pray (Eph 3:14-21)
Notes
Transcript
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If your Bibles with you this morning, please turn with me to Ephesians 3:14-21. I grew up in a church a little smaller than Heritage, and I remember as young teenager, one day coming home from school and there was a message on the answering machine from the pastor, asking me to give him a call when I got home. I can still remember the fear of wandering, what on earth have I done? Why is the pastor calling me. Not you the young youth pastor, but the old man pastor. Well, finally after catching my breath from the panic that swept over me, I gave him a call. And after my pastor asked about my day and some small talk, he said, the reason why I am calling, is because I want to ask if you would be willing to pray the closing prayer on Sunday morning during our worship service. Now, before I had a chance to really think about my great fear for public speaking, I realized that I somehow, I agreed to do it. And sure enough I can vividly remember that church service like it was yesterday. I went in picked up the church bulletin, where everything that was to be, was written out. And I remember scanning that paper and seeing my name written next to the word “benediction.” For the next hour, the only thing I thought of, was what on earth am I going to say. I remember thinking about the all the closing prayers I had heard before and I was trying to piece mill thoughts and words together just get through it. And of course, when the time came, I made my way up to the microphone with a bright red anxious face and yet somehow it all came together. I didn’t embarrass myself or the family name, it was simple, it was sweet, but it got the job done. Had you told me on that day, that one day I would be a pastor of a church, I would have laughed and thought you were absolutely insane.
As I was planing out today’s sermon, that story came to mind, because it dawned on me that prayer is something we must learn to do. You see, I figured out what to say to God at the end of a church service, because I had previously heard numerous men pray at the end of a church service. Let me ask you a question: How did you learn to pray? Or maybe I should ask, who taught you to pray? Like you, I learned to pray by listening to others in prayer. You see our prayer lives are greatly influenced by the time we spend in prayer with others. We essentially teach each other to pray as we pray together.
Now sadly, we are living in a day where there are few prayer warriors left to teach us to pray as we should. Therefore, we should turn to Scripture. For God in His wisdom preserved some of the prayers of the prophets, psalmists, Jesus, the disciples, and apostles so that we can know how we are to pray and walk in our faith. And what amazing me, as we look to those timeless inspired examples, is that today we tend to pray for the wrong things. Our prayers tend to be more focused on selfish gain. We pray for health, healing, and help out of desperate situations. But the prayers recorded in Scripture look vastly different from most of the prayers we voice and we hear today. So, today, as we look to this second prayer of Paul that is recorded in the book of Ephesians, I want you to learn from the apostle. I want us to learn how we should pray and then follow suit. Will you read me with me the prayer of Paul in Ephesians 3:14-21…
Notice four lessons with me regarding prayer….
1) We should pray with a spirit of humility in great confidence (vs. 14-15).
Paul begins this prayer with the words, “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father.” The phrase, “For this reason,” points us to that which proceeds. It acts on what the apostle has previously said in the first half of this letter and serves as the prayerful transition from the great theology of grace recorded in chapters 1-3, to the personal and practical application of that theology of grace in chapters 4-6. Church, you need to understand the significance of the placement of this prayer. Because what Paul is stressing with this strategically placed prayer is that living out our faith, depends upon prayer. Every biblical command that follows this prayer in the book of Ephesians will only be accomplished well by those who pray. Immediately after this prayer, Paul calls upon the church to be united together as a family, he calls on them walk in their faith, challenges them to take off the old sinful man and put on the new, he pleas with them to be imitators of God, and then he starts speaking of the way we are to serve one another within the family unit and lastly speaks on putting on the armor of God and engaging in spiritual warfare… None of those things will go well without the combination of prayer and faith in a God who is thoroughly gracious.
You see church, when we reflect on the grace of God, as Paul has in the first half of this letter, it should lead us to fall humbly before the One who called us to faith, adopted us into His family, redeemed us from our sin, and forgave us of our trespasses. The apostle has just wrote about how Christ died on our behalf, how the Spirit has sealed us, how God has brought us from death to life, how He has raised us with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenlies, and how God has made us part of His church, and in light of those glorious and gracious realities, Paul says, “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father.” Church family, like many of you, I love studying theology. I love learning about God, I love talking about God and studying Scripture in small groups… But if that study and growing knowledge does not lead me to prayer, then something is wrong in my heart. Listen… sound theology should naturally cause us to pray and to engage with God in praise, worship, and awe. It should stir with in us a desire to be near to God the Father who loves us and showers us grace beyond measure.
Paul literally falls on His knees in humble worship before the God of grace. Like psalmist in Psalm 95:6-7, Paul calls out… “Come, let us worship and bow down, Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.”
Now it is certainly interesting to note, that kneeling in prayer is rather uncommon for those in the Jewish faith. Even today, if you visit the Western Wall in Jerusalem, rarely will you ever see a person on their knees in prayer. Instead, they most commonly stand while rockling back in forth as they pray. But in the Bible, whenever we read of someone kneeling in prayer it always indicates deep humility and deep emotion before God. There is an intensity to such prayer. You see, when Paul bows his knees, he not simply or casually mentioning someone or something in prayer. This is far from a mundane prayer. Instead, this is a powerful moment where Paul’s knees buckle under the overwhelming weight of God’s grace. When was the last time, you fell before God in humble worship for all the grace that He has bestowed upon you?
But curiously, this posture of deep humility is mixed with a great boldness. Paul prays not only as a man humbled by the glory of Christ, but also he prays as a man who is confident of his heavenly Father’s love. Notice to whom Paul prays in verses 14-15, he prays to “the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.” Church family, because God is our Father, we do not have to come to Him in fear and trembling. We don’t have to come to God in order to appease Him. Rather, we come to a tender, loving, concerned, compassionate, and accepting Father. Paul is saying in verse 15 that God is the prototype of all fatherhood, that He is the good and perfect Father. God is that Father that’s always been there for every second of your life, He’s the Father that is always faithful, and true to every promise He has ever made. He’s the Father that loves you perfectly, who will discipline you when needed, and yet He longs to shower you with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies.
I realize for some of, such a father is hard to imagine. Some of your fathers here on earth have broken countless promises. They have hurt you emotionally, and some physically. I’ve heard some of your stories and they are heartbreaking. But please, please don’t allow your poor experience with your earthly father to ever cause you to doubt God’s perfect love for you. The apostle understood that God is our ultimate and perfect Father. Therefore, Paul approaches God with humility, boldness, and confidence.
Let me read a little JI Packer for you, from his book Knowing God (I think there might be one more copy on the resource table.) He wrote… “If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all. For everything that Christ taught, everything that makes the New Testament new and better than the Old, everything that is distinctively Christian, is summed up in the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God the Father.”
Brothers and sisters, because God is our gracious Father, we must and can pray with spirit of humility in great confidence.
2) We should pray that we experience the power of God from within (vs. 16-17a).
There are two main petitions to Paul’s prayer, two main requests that profoundly emerge. That, in my opinion, tend to be drastically unlike from most prayers we hear today. Let’s begin with the first and primary request which is a plea “to be strengthened with power.” Out of all this things Paul could have prayed for, this is the one he places at the top of the list. Paul knows that if we are going to live out our faith within the context of a unified church family as he been talking about earlier in this chapter and also immediately after this prayer, then we are in desperate need of God’s power. For this is literally impossible to do in our might. No matter how hard we try, we can’t will it to happen. God has to do it!
And notice specifically in verse 16 and 17 that Paul prays a very trinitarian prayer. Each member of the Trinity is represented in this petition. He’s praying to the Father of glory, that the Holy Spirit would work in the hearts of men, that Christ Jesus may dwell within. Rightfully, He prays to God, the Father who is able to answer this request according “to the riches of His glory.” In Philippians 4:19, the apostle Paul wrote, “And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” Everything we may need in this world; God the Father of glory is eager to supply. I literally have no idea what your greatest need is this morning, we all walk through these doors with all kinds of crazy things going on in our lives. But I do know this… The generous God who has unlimited and unfathomable riches in glory is the only One who can meet your true need. The prepositional phrase in Phil. 4:19 identifies the true source of God’s glorious riches: and that is the person of Jesus Christ, who alone is the fullest revelation of God’ glorious riches. That’s why Paul ends this primary request in verse 17 by adding that “Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” He is our greatest need, and indeed our only true need. For without Christ we have no hope, no true joy can be experienced outside of Him, and no peace can be found in our broken world.
In the apostle’s initial appeal, He asks that God would strengthen us through the Spirit. It’s the Holy Spirit who alone can strengthen our hearts and spirits. He is the One who energizes, revitalizes, and empowers believers to obey God’s Word and live for His glory. He convicts us over of our sin and urges us forward in the faith. And notice Paul calls upon God the Father to use the Spirit to strengthen the inner man. The “inner man” in verse 16 is synonymous with the heart in verse 17. This is where we need strength and power, on the inside. This is how we are to overcome sin, this is how we are to consider others more important than ourselves, and live untied with one another in faith, this is how we are to proclaim the gospel, and this is how we are to be strong and courageous in the Lord. We sadly live a world that is and has always been radically obsessed with the outside, why because man looks at the outer man while God always looks to the heart. Oh how we love to spend so much time and energy dealing with how we appear to others, even when we know it’s a losing battle. Our bodies inevitably fall apart. We surely will grow weaker and older, it’s a process that no matter how hard you try, you cannot stop. But the inner man is different. 2 Corinthians 4:16 reads… “Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.”
You see, the Bible reminds us that the inner man is vastly more important than the outer man. And notice why Paul says we need to be strengthened in the inner man verse 17… “so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” This is indeed part of the mystery that Paul spoke of in Chapter 2, that Christ dwells with believers, not in a tabernacle or temple, but from within. Now, some of you maybe thinking, “I thought Christ was already within my heart as I am a Christian.” I would most certainly agree, that if you are a believer, then Christ is in your heart. But Paul is speaking of something far more than Jesus just being in your heart. You see the apostle is talking about Christ ruling in your heart and there is a great difference in the two. Paul’s word choice in the Greek is very significant. He could have choose a word for dwell that meant “to inhabit,” but instead he opted for a word that literally means “to settle down,” It carries the idea of permanent residence, not a visitor, or a short-lived residence.
In his short booklet entitled My Heart Christ’s Home, Robert Munger portrays the Christian life as a house, a house through which Jesus enters and goes from room to room. He starts in the library, which is the mind, and there Jesus finds all kinds of trash and worthless things and He begins to clean that area by throwing out the junk and replacing it with His Word. Jesus then enters the dining room, where he discovers appetites for worldly things like prestige, materialism, and lust. And again, Jesus gets to work and begins to replace the worldly desires with the godly desires of humility, meekness, righteousness, and love. Leaving the dining room Christ enters the living room of fellowship, where Jesus finds many worldly companions and activities that have a great influence on the entire family, so Jesus begins to work there as well. Yet, before Jesus can fully settle down within this home, he still smells something that just isn’t right. And the smell he discovers comes from the closet, where hidden sins are kept. Church, its only when Jesus has free access to all of our life, its only when we give Him the freedom to clean out our entire inner man and all the junk in sin, that Jesus is able to truly settle down and make himself at home within our hearts.
Church, when we place our faith in Christ and He comes into our heart, He enters so that He may live, abide, and reign there. He enters so that we might reflect His character. How awesome it is that God desires to live in our hearts and transform our lives from the inside out. In John 14:23 Jesus said… “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and my Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.”
Can I just ask you: How welcome is Jesus in your life and in your home? How welcome is He in your heart? Does He have free reign, or do you limit His access to certain areas of your life. Are there closed doors that you need to open to Him? Oh, that we would pray like Paul, to the God of all glory, that He may strengthen us from within through the work of the Holy Spirit so that Christ may truly be at home in our hearts. This is what was first on Paul’s mind when he prayed. He understood that we cannot truly live for Christ, without God’s gracious strength.
3) We should pray that we comprehend the incomprehensible love of Christ (vs 17b-19).
At the end of verse 17, the apostle transitions from strength to love, as he wants his readers to comprehend the immeasurable love of God. That’s his second request. Its noteworthy that Paul does not focus on the Ephesian’s love for Christ (though that surely is a good thing to pray for), but rather this is a prayer that the Ephesians may know the greatness of Christ’s love for them. Apparently, the apostle thinks that believers tend to struggle in appreciating the love of Christ as they should, and thus they are neglecting something of great importance, something very similar and connected to their need of supernatural strength.
Notice how Paul makes this transition and the progression of his thinking here. The apostle is arguing that when Christ settles down in our hearts, He begins to display His own love in us and through us. You see, when Christ freely indwells our hearts, we will then become more and more rooted and grounded in love. The words “rooted” and “grounded” in verse 17 are both terms that relate to growth. “Rooted” refers to the growth of a plant or tree, where “grounded” refers to the growth or construction of a building. We need to understand church that all heavenly growth and sanctification is grounded in Christ’s love. Meaning we are to build our lives on the love of Christ and let our roots grow down deep into His love, so that we can draw incredible strength from there.
Think about what Paul is saying here… he is saying that the power for spiritual change comes from the assurance that we are loved beyond our wildest imagination. He is saying that the power we have to overcome sin, is in direct proportion to the assurance and security we experience on the foundation of God’s love. You see if that foundational assurance of love is weak, then we will inevitably struggle to experience His power to overcome sin in our lives. Listen, if you want to make spiritual changes in your life, if you want to repent from sinful habits, then we must keep our eyes on the cross, where God’s love is most clearly displayed in the sacrifice of His own Son. We are to always build off that foundation because Christ died for us, we can and should live for Him.
You see the Bible repeatedly reminds us that we are sinful people. This a drastically different view of man, than the world’s view. The world says we are all born intrinsically good. That our happiness, peace, and joy are discovered by simply following our hearts. But the Bible in Jeremiah 17:9 reads… “The heart is more deceitful than all else, And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” The prophet answers that question in the next verse, only God. God your Creator who made you to live for Him and for His glory, who calls you to live according to His Word. The reality is this… the only place you will truly discover love, joy, peace, contentment, and hope is in Christ. Apart from placing your faith and hope in Him who died on the cross for your sins, your heart will faithfully lead you to cheap imitations, pseudo saviors, like a happy marriage, a new job, retirement, or a promotion these things promise happiness, contentment and peace but eventually fail to deliver. Oh the love of God, that He would send His Son to die so that you can truly live and find true satisfaction. If you have never placed your faith in Christ, truly believed that He lived a sinless life, died for our sin, and gloriously rose again. If you genuinely believe in those truths and turn from your sin and selfish ways to live for Him, you will be saved and God will pour out His grace and favor upon you! God offers you a new life, a fresh start and wonderful family of faith. If you want to know more, please come find me after the service this morning. I’d love to talk about it with you and pray for you.
But for now, lets look back to or text to how Paul continues in his prayer, he prays that believers “may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge.” His heart for the church is that we may be able to comprehend that which is utterly incomprehensible. He wants us to know the fullness of Christ love. Notice how love goes in every direction and to furthest distance imaginable. It goes wherever it is needed for as long as it is needed.
The four words: breadth, length, height, and depth really aim to articulate fullness and completeness. There is no spiritual direction to which you can look in which you will not see the love of Christ. His love is wide, wide enough to embrace the whole world (both Jew and Gentile). His love is long, it reaches back to before time began where believers were chosen in Christ and reaches throughout eternity where they will forever enjoy His presence. His love is high. For we can see the height in His love in that believers are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies and that in Him we are raised up with Christ and seated in the heavenly places. And notice lastly, Christ’s love is deep. Its deep in that it reaches down to lowest levels of depravity to redeem those who are dead in their sin and trespasses. There literally are no limits to the love of Christ. Christian, God the Father and Christ His Son, they love you perfectly and completely.
That’s easy to say, but let’s be honest, its hard to believe. That’s why Paul says His love surpasses knowledge. Yet he prays that we would strive to know it and comprehend it. The word “comprehend” literally means “to take hold of”, or “to seize.” He knows this is ultimately impossible because God’s love is so radically unlike our love towards others, but he calls on believers to live towards that end, to never give up contemplating the vast nature of God’s love. You see, just because you can’t fully know something doesn’t mean you can’t experience it.
That’s what the apostle is saying and notice specifically… he says in verse 18 that we are to do this “with all the saints.” Please don’t overlook that phrase. Because this endeavor to behold the immeasurable love of God is not to be an isolated pursuit. We are to do this together, as a family, for we can only come to a better, fuller understanding of His love in a community setting. On your own, you are so limited to what you can know. This is why church attendance, participating in Bible Study, and Church membership are so important. And let me add, your lack of commitment to a church family isn’t just detrimental to your personal growth in understanding the love of God. It also hurts those closest to you, especially your family. Pastor Kevin DeYoung wrote these powerful words that are worth our reflection… He said…. “The man who attempts Christianity without the church shoots himself in the foot, shoots his children in the leg, and shoots his grandchildren in the heart.” Listen, I know the internet has made it convenient not to be here in person, but if you can be here, then be here often. Oh how we need each other to be in His family, grow in grace, and understand the greatness of God’s love towards us.
But Paul doesn’t stop there, does he? He’s already said so much with this one request to comprehend the unconceivable but notice his purpose in it which is stated in verse 19, “that you may be filled up with all the fullness of God.” The Greek words that speak of being filled up are used often in the New Testament. The idea expressed in the phrase implies total dominance. Therefore, to be filled with the fulness of God means to be totally dominated by Him, and to be filled with everything to which God fills Himself. As a Christian you are to be filled with God’s love, His grace, His mercy, His hatred of sin, His patience, His peace, His joy, His kindness, His goodness, His gentleness, and self-control. Paul goes on in this short letter and calls us to take off the old man and put on the new, He tells us to strip off all this sin and put on Christ. Like Christ, he commands us to die to self and be filled with God. You see, if we are going to fill ourselves, the we must first empty ourselves of all the sin and selfish desires that keep us from being filled with the fruit of the Spirit.
What a God we have, who loves us so much that He will not relent until we are completely made like Christ. In Colossians 1:19-20, Paul wrote… “For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross.” One day, every believer in this room, will enter the glories of heaven and we will be filled to capacity with God. We will be filled up to that fullness of God which human beings are capable of receiving without ceasing to be human. Its impossible for us to imagine what that will be like. Our minds cannot fathom the joy, peace, and love that we will have with Christ and one another. And though it seems such a stretch to imagine these things, Paul prays that we won’t stop growing in them while we are living. He prays that we will die to self day-by-day and actively fill our lives with the fullness of God.
4) We should pray with great expectations and a heart bursting with praise (vs. 20-21).
As the apostle Paul brings this prayer to a close, he offers a rather fitting doxology. He speaks with a heart full of worship and anticipation, and in doing so, Paul reveals the greatness of God. Just briefly consider with me why Paul’s hear is so.
First Paul knows he is praying to God who is both all sovereign and all powerful. I love how the apostle says God is able. Able to do what? Notice how Paul heaps up phrase after phrase to explain God’s sovereign might. He starts by saying God is able to do far more abundantly. That alone says a lot, but Paul doesn’t stop there, he adds “beyond all that we ask.” Listen, it is impossible to ask something of God in which He is unable to accomplish…. Now, I know the riddles.. can God create a rock so heavy and large that He is unable to lift? That’s not what Paul has in mind here… rather He is saying there is no situation that you will find yourself in, that your need in that moment would be beyond His ability. So don’t hesitate to ask a God who is able to do more than what you possibly ask for in any messy situation. Lastly, Paul adds one more phrase… you see God is able to do, not just more than we can ask, but also, more that we can ever think. Listen, His power and ability are simply unfathomable.
One commentator I read this week, said God can do more in response to one prayer request than we can do in one hundred years of planning and plodding. Do you believe that? Do you believe that God alone is Sovereign over all things. That He is able to do anything we can ever ask or imagine. In Romans 8:32, Paul wrote, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” Listen, we pray to a God who not only is able to do more than we can ever imagine, but we also pray to a God whose love for us knows no end. That’s why Paul prays with praise and expectation, and so should we.
But notice also at the end of verse 20 how God traditionally answers prayer and works beyond or imagination. Paul wrote , that God does so “according to the power that works within us.” Wow what a powerful thought, that God delights in choosing to use rather imperfect people to answer the prayers of His church. Just think of the biblical examples that have been preserved for us. Think of how God worked in and through the lives of men named Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Gideon, David, Elijah, Isaiah, Nehemiah, Ezra, then in the New Testament we have the disciples, and the church. Listen, God is able to do extraordinary things through ordinary people who are available to God. God longs to use people like you and me, flawed, imperfect, rather messy people to answer the prayers of others. We simply must be available to God, sensitive to the needs of others, and willing to sacrificially love like Christ.
Lastly notice, why God answers prayer and delights in using imperfect people. Paul says it in verse 21, “to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” God blesses His people and answers their prayers for His own glory. Specifically, Paul prays that God will manifest His glory in the church and in Christ Jesus. Again, the focus of His prayer is not individuals but the family of God within the church, those who are in Christ Jesus. He is praying that their love for God and one another, that their interactions with one another, and their engagement with the world around them, would manifest His glory forever and ever as they follow Christ as Lord and Savior.
Forever… Forever God will be glorified for His unmeasurable power and love. That’s how Paul ends this praise on a high note of praise. Puritan Thomas Watson wrote, “Praising God is one of the highest and purest acts of religion. In prayer we act like men; in praise we act like angels.” Church Family, for those of us who are in Christ, we will one day join the angels in the highest of praise. Our prayers will be no more, but our worship will never end as hearts will overflow with praise for eternity.
Church family, who is teaching you to pray? Are you praying with one another? Are you praying for one another? Are you praying? We have so much to learn together. So much to learn about God, His love, His power, His grace, so much to learn about God and prayer that we can never learn or experience on our own. Will you pray with me now….
KSW