The Jesus Centered Life pt. 3, Praying with confidence, Ephesians 3;20-21

Ephesians 3:20–21 (ESV)

20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

In our last sermon we looked at Ephesians 3:14-19, and in that passage Paul writes out his prayer for them. From his prayer we can learn a great deal about how to pray.

Ephesians 3:14–19 (ESV)

14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

First, We should pray with God’s big picture in mind.

“This reason” refers to the mystery that has been revealed… and the mystery that has been revealed is two fold. 1. It is the truth that Jesus Christ is the messiah. And 2. It’s the truth that God is saving both Jews and Gentiles through Christ, and that in Christ there is equality of standing. As Paul says there is peace with God and between the Jews and the rest of the world in Christ. God is reconciling all things in Christ.

And all things, as we have seen, means both Jews and Gentiles… or as Paul prayer here from who every family in heaven and on earth is named… The generations of God’s family are not bound together by Abraham, or even Noah… they are bound up in God himself.

Paul prays with God’s big picture in mind because part of God’s picture for the world is the church, and in his plans and purposes for the church God has revealed that the church is the means by which the world will hear and know the truth about Jesus. So, Paul prays with God’s big picture in mind when he prays specifically for the Ephesians.

Second, We should pray for God’s purposes and plans to be fulfilled

Pray with increasing confidence in God’s ability to supply

Pray for an Increasing strength of faith

Pray that they will be Increasingly rooted and grounded in love

Pray for an increasing comprehension of the fullness of God’s love

Pray that they will be increasingly satisfied by God’s love

It’s God’s desire that we will be satisfied by His love for us, and find our fulfillment and identity in our relationship with Him.

Love is the foundation and basis for everything in our relationship with God.

Paul’s prayer is bookended on the front with his knowledge of God’s loving purpose and plan. Paul’s prayer is bookended on the back of his prayer with His confidence in God’s power to accomplish His purpose.

Prayer requires faith and trust in God’s promises, purposes, and plans.

Ephesians 3:20–21 (ESV)

20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Paul tells the Ephesians to lean into God’s love and power when it comes to their faith and their obedience.

God will supply all that they need to be faithful to Him. So, as he concludes this prayer for them he reminds them that God is able to do whatever you ask or think.

God is able to do whatever you ask or think

Now, this is true in his power and ability. Paul prayed that God would work in their lives from the riches of his supply… and that supply as we see here is more than sufficient to answer the things that we can think of and ask.

Before you begin to ask about sin… or if you are trying to think of asking God to make a stone so heavy that even he can’t pick it up… As with all things related to God we must be mindful that just as God will not compromise on his purposes, God will also not violate his character… but that is a baseline or foundational understanding of who He is. Everything that is loving, good, pure, true, and right comes from Him. As John says in his first letter there is no darkness in God at all.

So, does this mean that God will do “whatever” I ask? No, it doesn’t. And this isn’t a contradiction. Paul is writing to them about his prayer for their lives, and in turn provides instruction and example of how they should pray. And, when we pray we do so with God’s big picture and trusting in his power to supply all that we need to grow in our love for God… but the things that we ask of the Lord should be aligned with His revealed will. It doesn’t mean that you can’t cry out to God without knowing all that God has revealed… but it does mean that there is an increased confidence in God’s answer when you know what He wants.

So, everything that you can ask or think of related to God’s purpose and plans for your life, God is able to do. He has the power to do everything that you can imagine. And this isn’t a call to give orders to God, no this is a call to pray in a way that brings you life into alignment with God.

Prayer doesn’t bend God to our will, prayer bends our will to God.

This is one of the primary results of our prayer life. If we are going to pray confidently, then we need to know what it is that God wants. And, the more that we know what God wants the more our lives conform to what He has called us to do.

Paul is not writing so that we will believe God can do anything… no Paul is writing so that we will believe that God can and will do what He has promised so that we can fulfill His purposes. Hence, Paul’s prayer for strength, faith, love, and fulfillment

Paul says that God is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think… So, yes, God can do whatever you ask or think. But, Paul is also writing about his reason to pray and the things he is praying for.

And, as we have noted already we are to pray with God’s big picture and His purposes in mind. Prayer is not an exercise in controlling God.

Prayer is act of faith to bring our lives (and the lives of others) in line with the purposes and plans of God.

God does far more abundantly than all you can ask or think of.

This means that when God answers your prayers, you have to trust and believe that God is doing more than you are looking for. Our confidence increases when we know that God answers our prayers and does even more than we have asked… abundantly more than we have asked.

Now, I don’t know if you are thinking about God’s ability to give you more of the things of the world, but if you are I want to caution you against making these verses about the things of the world that will pass away. Paul isn’t promising that God will give you more than you could think of in a financial and earthly way. (Though God may choose to bless you in those ways.)

God does more than you can ask or think of when it comes to how he works out His plans and purposes.

For instance, you may be praying about a situation in your life. And, God may answer your prayer in a way that does more for His name than you could have considered.

God is not just working in your life, He is working all things together for good and for His purpose.

Romans 8:26–28 (ESV)

26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

There is a similarity of understanding between what Paul writes to the Romans and what he says to the Ephesians.

You can pray confidently to God to work things out in your life and trust that He cares about your life, and also that what He does is bigger than your situation.

Pray and live in a way that brings God glory in the generations that are to come after you.

This is not just for those who are older, it’s for all of us. The church is to be focused on God’s glory, and not just God’s glory for one generation, or for a handful of people… no, Paul writes that God’s power is at work within for the sake of His name (glory) in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

And this is what we all want until it isn’t.

We all want God to work things out for our good, and we wan’t Him to do that in ways that fulfill his purpose… until he does that in a way that isn’t exactly how we asked Him to do it.

We would get all of God’s good without sacrifice or suffering.

We would get all of God’s good without loss or need.

We would have all of God’s good without any of the similarities of Paul’s life or the life of Christ. We would tell God what we want and also how we want Him to give it to us.

How many times have you prayed for God to something amazing, only to be frustrated that he did it in a way that cost you more than you thought or in a way that didn’t involve as much of you as you wanted.

It’s hard for us to not be selfish or self-centered when we pray.

But, I think this is one of the issues Paul is trying to avoid. Paul is giving us direction to pray for what we know God wants, but notice that he isn’t telling us to tell God how he should do it.

Across our country there are many churches and church members who are having to work through trusting God with how He is working.

One way that I think applies to many churches and possible to some of us here is when we pray for God to work in our church, but then when it begins to happen we are frustrated with how because it’s not the way we had in mind.

I have at least one conversation a month with someone in our church or another church about this very issue. After years of praying for God to work, they have become frustrated because it isn’t how they wanted Him to do it. And, like I have mentioned before Jesus gives us an incredible thought the wineskins of how He will do something new that honors what came before, but what came before cannot contain what is coming next, so, it needs a new wineskin… a wineskin that will one day be unable to contain the next outpouring of the Lord.

Paul is giving us direction to pray for what we know God wants, but he isn’t telling us to tell God how he should do it.

Paul tells us why we shouldn’t pray and tell God how He should do it…

It’s simple, God can do abundantly more than we can ask or imagine.

And for that plain reason we are not in a position to tell God how to work…

In fact, He has told us that His ways are not our ways…

Isaiah 55:8–9 (ESV), 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

And, not only are His ways not our ways… Our ways are short sighted and self-focused in comparison to His.

God is working things out according to His purpose and plans, and His plans are infinitely better and more glorifying than our ways. So, we pray with what we know for what we know, and we trust God with how he unfolds His plans in relation to our prayers. Why? Because in His answer to our prayer God is working the whole thing out, not just our thing.

So, when we pray we should follow Paul’s example and pray for God’s work in the lives of others and not just our own.

We should pray believing that whatever good thing we are praying for, that God has an answer that is even better than the one we gave Him.

Prayer requires faith and trust in God’s promises, purposes, and plans.

Until you have surrendered to God’s purposes and plans you are not really praying with the faith we are called to have in Scripture.

Many are comfortable praying for God’s to keep His promises… but those who truly trust the Lord will pray trusting in God’s purposes and plans that fulfill His promise.

But, when God’s works in abundant and powerful ways, He always works in ways that glorify him.

The more abundantly than all that we can ask or think is Jesus.

Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise

Jesus was God’s purpose and plan from the very beginning

We would not think of Jesus

We would have made what we know work better

We would have made it possible under our own power

We would have made it so the Jews could be Jews and the Gentiles could be Gentiles

We would have let things be peaceable but we wouldn’t have aimed for true peace.

And yet, in praying for God to keep His promise to save the Jews missed the abundant way that God answered that pray in Jesus.

They weren’t looking for God to send His son to die.

They weren’t thinking about the love of God, they were focused on something much smaller than God’s eternal plan to redeem the world and bring all nations to Himself.

Abraham prayed for a child… God gave Him a child of promise and through that child of promise God kept His promise that goes all the way back to the foundations of the world. The promise mentioned in the Garden of Eden. The promise that runs from Abraham, to Moses, to David, and now to you.

Jesus and the life He has for you are the more abundant than you can ask or imagine… it may not be the “how” that you have had in mind.

In fact, following Jesus may take you into ministry, it may take you to the mission field. You may load your life and family up and go across the country or the world because you say yes to God’s plan and purpose for your life.

But, it begins and it ends with trusting by faith in Jesus. DJohn connects the prayer life of a Christian to understanding what God wants.

1 John 3:19–22 (ESV)

19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; 20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22 and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.

John 15:5–11 (ESV)

5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.