"Pray What Now?"
Notes
Transcript
Intro: My first prayer retreat after coming to the faith. I complicated it. 24 hours of staring. I asked how to do it, and Allen told me to “Pray the Psalms.”
I don't know what it was like for you growing up, or coming into a relationship with Jesus, but the idea of praying, especially in the early stages probably feels odd.
From the earliest that I can remember in my faith journey I found that prayer was something that I knew I needed to develop, but at the same time was never something that came easy to me.
It was a hard concept because I was trying to figure out Who God was, and the more that I figured out, the more intimidated I was to pray to Him.
Let's be honest, He is the Creator of all things. I really felt Like, "Who am I to ask anything, or for that matter, say anything to you God?"
Look, I knew I loved God and that He loved me, but the idea of striking up a conversation with Him felt difficult.
Then it was taught to me that Jesus taught us how to pray. We all know the prayer to some level right, Our Father ... So, then I was right back to the intimidation factor again.
I mean, this is Jesus, Son of God, teaching how to pray, and yet in my mind all I could think was, "Yes, but He is the Son of God, so of course He could pray without issue. He didn't sin. I'm an addict."
It took time to get through that part of my faith journey and I did, but I can tell you it was not easy. I did not grow up in a family where we said prayers together.
I did not grow up in a family where this was even really talked about so much. I vaguely remember a couple times at dinner, but not consistent.
But as I matured in my faith, I found it slowly starting to come to me and I really enjoyed taking time to spend with Him as often as I could.
As time went that developed into me joining our prayer team at the church where we would pray during the services for God to move boldly and we saw some real movement from God.
But let me tell you when prayer became more intense in my life. It was when other people stated joining my life. It started with my family, then the youth that I pastored, the churches that I would lead, and so forth.
I wish I could tell you that it has gone flawless over the years, but it hasn't. It continues to grow in me, and I still fight to get better at it.
But then you come upon Ephesians, and you find some very intent truths about prayer. Our text today reveals some important truths about prayer, emphasizing prayer for knowledge and understanding.
We need the Spirit’s help to grasp the greatness of God, the supremacy of Christ, and the rich benefits of the gospel.
In this prayer that Paul gives, we will hear a prayer of thanksgiving and intercession. It is a great prayer that I find as a useful way to help nudge each of us to consider God and others as we pray.
It is a form of prayer in which I pray for this body and my own family. Read Passage: Ephesians 1:15–23
15 For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints,
16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers,
17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him,
18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,
19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might
20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,
21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.
22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church,
23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
Pray:
The first piece of Paul's prayer is that he ...
1. Thanked God for signs of grace (15-16)
1. Thanked God for signs of grace (15-16)
Paul begins by expressing his gratitude to God for the signs of grace that he had heard about the Ephesian believers.
Now it had been some time since he had been there, but none the less he still felt compelled to pray this prayer of thanks for them, and the changing work of grace in them by God.
Paul, in his public commendation of the people he is writing to, has given two characteristics of God that he is most thankful for that he has heard about in these people.
They showed a great love for Jesus and an enduring love for people. This is not the only time that we hear Paul talk about faith and love.
We see it in Col 1:4, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, ...
since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints,
remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing.
because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints,
Clearly these are essential qualities that should be seen in Christians. If you were to try and summarize what a Christian is, then I think you find your answer in what we just read:
A Christian has faith in the Lord Jesus and has love toward the saints, of course adding hope that we see in verses 12 and 18.
But what sticks out to me is the report that Paul must have gotten about the church. Jesus said that they will know we are Christians by our love.
It seems obvious that this is what Paul is hearing about them. Paul found grace in them and gave gratitude for that grace.
I think this is something that every mature believer should make notation of. It is important to see grace forming in the lives of new believers and to commend them when you see it.
It is easy to be critical when we don't see them hitting the mark all the time, but mature believers recognize when they see grace and build it up in others. We should encourage when we see traces of grace lives.
Second part of the prayer that we see from Paul is he ...
2. Asked God for divine education (17-19a)
2. Asked God for divine education (17-19a)
As we move into this section, we find Paul making a plea for God to make Himself known even more to the church.
He prays for a “spirit of wisdom” and of “revelation” (v. 17), and “having the eyes of your heart enlightened” (v. 18).
He says that your heart has eyes! Paul is asking God to give them spiritual eyes to see who God is and what God has done for them.
Paul asking for the heart to be enlightened is to ask for God to open eyes to know Him and His truth fully. To be enlightened in this case would be to understand the scripture that we read.
Friends, if we are not seeking the guidance and help of the HS in the understanding of God's word, we will certainly miss out on the opportunity to know God and what He is thinking.
You see, the mind of God is revealed in His word. We are in need of the HS to understand it fully and accurately.
Charles Spurgeon once said that apart from the HS it is easier to teach a tiger vegetarianism than someone without the HS the gospel.
So, this is the prayer of Paul, that God would give these Christians the eyes to see who they are.
Illus: This is the prayer of my heart for all of you. I have seen too many miss their calling and potential simply because the enemy has clouded their mind.
This has been the problem from creation to now. The enemy has convinced us to have too much of an inflated view of self.
The serpent convinced Adam and Eve that God didn't really mean what He said, and it has carried on to us. The enemy convinces us to be self-sufficient.
The first step to becoming a student of the Bible is having a heart of humility—a heart that says, “Please, give me understanding.”
And then it takes knowing He is the source of all power and glory, and we can be confident that He will give us all the resources that we need.
Paul then asks for the believer to be able to understand the power that has been given to them and within each of them.
This power that is immeasurable is available to all saints and only given by God, and it is a power that we all need as believers because of the battle that we are in.
We will discuss a lot more of the spiritual war we are in later, but you should know the power that you have around and in you is there for a reason.
The enemy and all spirits of the enemy hates us brothers and sisters, hates us. They hate our faith. They hate the church, our marriages, and our mission.
That is why we must lean into Christ and pray for His resurrection power to strengthen us and empower us to live for God’s glory.
From here we see Paul close this section by going to the resurrection and it's here where we see the third part of the prayer where Paul ...
3. Praised God for Christ's glory (20-23)
3. Praised God for Christ's glory (20-23)
These verses are really just a continuation from verse 19, but here Paul is giving glory to God for exalting Jesus above all! He hits on Christ's Resurrection first.
Because of the resurrection we do not have to fear death and life carries great meaning. Our time on this earth is not in vain... The Resurrection gives us hope beyond measure.
Then Paul moves on to Christ taking reign in Heaven. Not only is He alive, but He is alive forever!
To be at the “right hand” was a position of privilege, honor, favor, victory, and power. This position belongs to Jesus Christ alone.
What does that mean for us? It means everything. Everything is under the reign of the seated King!
The author of Hebrews says He is upholding the universe by the word of His power, and He upholds it all sitting down (Heb 1:3).
If He is doing this, then we can trust Him with our problems, both great and small. Our hope is not in a political election but in the seated King.
Paul goes on to say that Christ is supreme to all things. He is above all of creation and that includes our enemy.
He is above every ruler, name, king, president, and earthly power. In fact, Paul says they are under his feet.
With that statement, he is saying that not only are they inferior to Christ, but that they are subject to His rule and reign.
Finally, Paul mentions a great reminder. Christ has headship over the church.
Paul will give us more insight into this relationship later, but he wants to remind the reader that the church is about Christ, not man.
That is a great way to bring this to a close this morning. When is the last time that you took time to pray thanksgiving for this church, or the people in it?
When is the last time you have built up the fellow believers around you? What has this passage taught you about prayer today?
Is there anything missing in your prayer life? If you see that there is, are you willing to do anything about it?
This morning I would like to ask you to commit some time to prayer today. Take some time to simply pray these things that you have learned this morning.
Maybe for you the issue is that you have never tapped into the power and grace of Christ because you have never given your life to Him.
Maybe you simply did not know it was available to you. Would you consider making Him your savior today?