2. Pray this prayer for other people. Put their names in the blank in vs 16 and ask God to grant them strength, depth, comprehension, and fullness.

Transcription

1 God s Instructs Us How To Pray With Power Ephesians 3:14-21 Praying is so important as a child of God. Parents, what if the only time your children spoke to you were only when they needed something from you? How would that make you feel? Don t you want you children to talk to about all their lives rather than just their needs in a crisis? God is our heavenly Father and He wants to hear from His children regularly, not just in a crisis. He gives us instructions in His Word how to have power when we pray. As we learned last Wednesday night from 2 Peter, sometimes God delays His plans in order to accomplish His will. Text: Ephesians 3:14-21 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; 17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. 20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, 21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. Before we jump into interpreting this text and looking for some points of application, let s begin by making a few observations. By the way, one of the best ways to study the Bible is to follow these three steps: What does it say? That s observation. What does it mean? That s interpretation. What does it mean to me? That s application. Let me make just a few observations that will help us understand this passage better. 1. Paul s mind wandered when He prayed. That s good news, isn t it? My mind roams all over the place when I pray! Take a look at 3:1: For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles It sounds like he s getting ready to pray and then he spends the next 12 verses talking about the beauty and mystery of the church. When we come to 3:14, he finally returns to his prayer. 2. This prayer is Trinitarian. All three members of the Trinity are referred to in Paul s prayer. Verse 14: I bow my knees unto the Father Verse 16: I pray that out of His glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through His Spirit And in verse 17: So that Christ may dwell in your hearts The most common way to pray in the Bible is to address prayers to the Father, through the Son, and in the Spirit. However, it s certainly appropriate to address Jesus and the Holy Spirit when we pray.

2 3. This prayer is focused on our inner person, not on our bodies. So many of our prayers have to do with our health and physical needs. Paul is concerned more with how we re doing on the inside. In fact, all of Paul s prison prayers (those prayers he recorded while in prison,) deal with the believer s spiritual condition, not the physical. There is certainly nothing wrong with praying for physical health but Paul s concern here is with the internal, not external. 4. Paul s emotions are fully engaged. The Apostle did not try to just pray with his mind he threw his heart into his prayers. He didn t try the Serenity Prayer, or like thoughtlessly repeating God s name over and over. I picture Paul praying with fervency and a sense of urgency. 5. This prayer is focused on the need for power. The word power or strengthen is used several times. This is the second prayer recorded in Ephesians. The first one is found in Eph 1: where Paul s concern is for enlightenment so that we might know God s power. Here in chapter 3, he prays for empowerment so that we might use the divine power available to us. I was greatly helped in my preparation for this message by Warren Wiersbe s outline of Ephs 3 Gods Marvelous Plan for the Gentiles. He suggests that this prayer can be broken down into three parts: I. The Invocation (14-15) II. The Petition (16-19) III. The Benediction (20-21) Let s begin by looking at Paul s Invocation in verses The first thing we notice is his posture: I bow my knees or I kneel. Can you imagine what this must have been like for the Roman soldier who was chained to Paul? The Bible never commands us to pray using a certain position, although the most common way to pray was to stand up. When Paul says that he kneels, he is saying, I bend my knee before the Father. This is an act of humble petition. Think about your own posture in prayer for a minute. You may use several different positions. You may sit and pray while you re reading your Bible. You may stand and pray. But there are times when out of desperation or because of a circumstance, that we feel compelled to fall on our knees in an earnest prayer of intercession. That s what Paul was doing here. Paul refers to God as Father 42 different times in his letters. No other description used as frequently. This phrase denotes intimacy, and is the same word used by Jesus most often when He prayed. Paul says that the whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name from God the Father. As Creator, God is the Father of everyone; but as Savior, He is only the Father of those who believe. Notice that some of God s family is already in heaven and some of us are still on

3 earth. Well, that s Paul s Invocation, now lets look at: The Petition Verse 16 Paul introduces us to the petition part of the prayer, of which there are four specific requests. Paul prays that our inner beings may have spiritual strength, which will, in turn, lead to a deeper experience with Christ. This deeper experience will enable us to comprehend God s great love, which will result in being filled to the measure of the fullness of God. So then, Paul is praying for strength, depth, comprehension, and fullness. Paul makes these requests not according to our ability to receive, but according to God s ability to give. In other words, Paul doesn t want us to experience a portion of God, but to experience the limitless supply of God Himself. Out of God s glorious riches, He will give and give and give. There is more in God s endowment fund than we can ever use and we are beneficiaries of His riches. 1. Strength. The first request is for God to give power and strengthen the very core of our being through the Holy Spirit. The presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives is evidence that we are saved as Romans 8:9b says: Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. The power of the Holy Spirit is what Paul is praying for. Do you ever feel spiritually weak? I know I do. Many of us seek strength through friends or family members. We often wait until there is no one left to talk to before we turn to the Lord. Listen, only the Holy Spirit can strengthen our spirits. He is the one who refreshes, revitalizes and empowers us. And He does it on the inside where God dwells and works. Even though our bodies grow weaker, our inner being can grow stronger. 2 Cor 4:16 says, Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. As our bodies grow old and frail our spirits can grow strong in the Lord. That s the strength part now look at: 2. Depth. As the Holy Spirit empowers us, we are then able to go deeper in our walk with Christ. We see this in verse 17: So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and grounded (or established) in love Paul uses three pictures to convey the idea of spiritual depth and our fellowship with Christ when he chooses these three verbs: dwell, rooted, and grounded (or established). God wants us more than just merely saved. Paul s prayer is that Christ would dwell in our hearts. Jesus wants to be more than just a guest in our lives; He is the owner, or ruler. Christ wants our house, this house, to become His home. Robert Munger wrote a fascinating booklet entitled My Heart Christ s Home, in which he pictures

4 the Christian life as a house. Jesus comes into the house and goes from room to room. He goes into the library of the mind and begins to clean up the trash found there. He replaces it with His Word. He enters the dining room of the appetite and finds many sinful desires listed on a worldly menu. He replaces things like materialism, pride, envy and lust with humility, love and purity. When he finally comes to the closet, the owner of the house hesitates to open the door to all his dark and secret sins. He can t bear to have Jesus look inside. But Jesus does come inside only after He s invited and cleans it up. Jesus then settles down and feels at home. Do you have some rooms in your life that you haven t allowed Jesus into? Let Him come into every area of your life and do the cleaning with his penetrating holiness and matchless grace. Jesus dwells in our hearts through faith. Our faith in Him means that we invite Him to do some housecleaning. We put our faith in Him so that He can do the needed renovations in our life. In Paul s petition, he prays for strength. He prays for depth. His third request is for: 3. Comprehension. We see this in verse 18 and the first part of verse 19. One translation uses the word grasp which literally means to be made strong to comprehend. If we were talking about a joke, we might say, Do you get it? When Louis Armstrong was asked to explain jazz, he said, Man if I ve got to explain it, you ain t got it! Paul prays that believers get it, that we comprehend the enormity of Christ s love. And, he wants all the saints to take hold of this divine love. This is referring to believers who have been set apart for Christ. In the New Testament, the word, saint is a synonym for a Christian. Verse 18 continues by laying out four dimensions of God s love. How do you measure the immeasurable? How wide is it? It s immense. It reaches to all people, nations, sins, needs, cares, and situations. How long is it? It existed before time; it will never end and is unconditional. How high is God s love? It s high enough to take those who are saved to heaven. And, how deep is the love of God? It s deep enough to rescue the worst sinner from the guttermost to the uttermost. The beginning part of verse 19 seems like a contradiction. How can we know the love of God that is beyond knowing? How do we know the unknowable? Humanly speaking, we can t. This kind of knowledge is not intellectual, but divine and it comes with salvation. Paul is praying not that we know the love we have for Jesus, but that we would know the love of Jesus. When we contemplate His love, it will overwhelm us and blow us away. The only way to really understand it is by experiencing it for ourselves. If you don t understand God s love this morning, it may be because you haven t personally tasted it yet. 4. Fullness. Paul s fourth petition is for believers to experience fullness. We see this in the last part of verse 19: that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. How do you contain the

5 uncontainable? This is an amazing thought. As believers we have been created to be the containers, or vessels of God. He desires to pour His life into ours and fill us until we re full. Filled comes from a word that means, to be overflowing, like a cup that is running over. We tend to measure ourselves against other people. Paul tells us that the measure, or benchmark, is Christ. When we have reached His fullness, then we will have reached the limit. Do you experience the fullness of God on a regular basis? That s what Paul prays for believers. If you don t live with this kind of fullness, try praying this prayer for yourself and for others. Are you willing to say to the Lord, Lord, fill me up so that my life is all you and none of me? I often want some of the Lord and some of me. Do you?? Think of an empty cup. How do you get all the air out of it? There s only one way by filling it with something else. How do we remove the weakness, the sin, and the junk from our lives? By being filled with the fullness of God. Ok, we ve seen the Invocation & The Petition, now: The Benediction We come now to the last two verses of our text. After contemplating the thrill of experiencing God s power, plumbing the depths of God s love, trying to grasp all that He has for us, and striving to be filled with the fullness of God Himself, Paul bursts forth into a glorious doxology of praise. These petitions are beyond our reach unless God intervenes. In this beautiful benediction, Paul uses every word possible to convey the vastness of God s power that is available to us today. Let s look at what God is able to do in verse 20: He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. There is nothing that God cannot do. His expectations are higher than our requests. He is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask. He listens to our prayers. God reads our thoughts. He is able to do this according to His power that is at work within us. God does all this through the power that is already in us. Action Steps Let me give you three action steps this morning. 1. Pray this prayer for yourself on regular basis. Take this text, vss and insert your name in vs 16 where it says, That He would grant you (your name), and pray it every day for a week. Ask God to change your inner person, and pray less for your physical needs, and material needs. 2. Pray this prayer for other people. Put their names in the blank in vs 16 and ask God to grant them strength, depth, comprehension, and fullness.

6 3. Think of an impossible situation right now. Is there something you are facing that seems way beyond hope? Write it down somewhere so that you can see it often, then make a decision to trust God to do immeasurably more than all you can ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within you. DISCOVER THE POWER OF PRAYER. PLUG INTO THAT POWER. INV..