Praying for Wisdom and Love
Great Prayers of the Bible • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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ok Church - we are midway through this series called Great Prayers of the Bible. We continue to examine different types of prayers that the saints of old recorded for us to hear and emulate. It is my hope that we are expanding our bandwidth - that we are enlarging the scope of our prayer life, expanding our prayer vocabulary, and developing a culture within Grace Church that first and foremost seeks the Lord in prayer. Our consistent and steadfast prayer with our Lord leads to spiritual growth. What marriage can survive without open communication? None. The Church is described as the bride of Christ in the Bible, and Jesus is the bridegroom. Prayer is the channel by which our relationship grows.
So far, we have examined prayers of intercession, deliverance, and repentance. Throughout July, our prayer lessons will be on praying in times of trouble, prayers for mercy, praying together, and prayers of submission to God’s will.
This morning, we listened to Jesus praying to His Father for “those who will believe in me” when they hear the word as proclaimed by the apostles - that we would become “perfectly one” - unified with one another and with our Triune God. That we would see Jesus’ glory and that we would be filled with His perfect love.
Your faith is leading you to far more than the forgiveness of your sins and a place in heaven. Jesus has opened the door and welcomed you into the family of God. All that is His is available to you. Mi casa is su casa - My house is your house says the Lord. The same relationship enjoyed between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit - that perfectly differentiated but unified circle of the purest form of love - has now widened to include you and me.
I want to invite you to dwell on that for a moment. Ask Jesus to show you, reveal to you, what does it mean to be included in God’s circle of holy love?
[Lord show us what we may not yet fully grasp. Bring us to a higher degree of understanding. Awaken us to live into this relationship with you that you desire for us. Amen.]
I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
I would imagine that it is difficult for you to fully grasp what that means. At least, I can safely say, it is difficult for me to see it clearly. And when I examine the actions and behavior of the wider Church today in our world - I think it is safe to say few have grasped what it means to be included in God’s circle of holy love.
In fact, the only way that we are able to truly grasp what Christ has opened up to us is through the illumination of the Holy Spirit, for God in his great mercy to break through our calloused hearts, loosen our stiff necks, reveal to our confused and distracted minds, His knowledge and understanding. For God to increase our capacity for receiving and sharing His love which He shows us through Jesus.
Since it will take Divine intervention, an outpouring of God’s grace, to truly know - not just with our minds but with our whole being - God’s love for us and His will for our lives - then shouldn’t that be a major prayer point for us during our week as we pray for one another?
Which leads us to the Apostle Paul’s prayers for the Church in Ephesus that we heard earlier. Paul is praying for the Church to know…to truly grasp…what has been made available to them - what Christ has opened up - the fullness of God’s love for each of them.
Listen again to Paul’s prayer:
I don’t stop giving thanks to God for you when I remember you in my prayers. I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, will give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation that makes God known to you. I pray that the eyes of your heart will have enough light to see what is the hope of God’s call, what is the richness of God’s glorious inheritance among believers, and what is the overwhelming greatness of God’s power that is working among us believers. This power is conferred by the energy of God’s powerful strength. God’s power was at work in Christ when God raised him from the dead and sat him at God’s right side in the heavens,
As John Stott wrote in his book, the Message of Ephesians:
The apostle now brings together three great truths which he wants his readers (through the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit) to know in mind and experience. They concern God’s call, inheritance and power.
Specifically, the “hope” of God’s call, the “glory” of His inheritance, and the “greatness” of His power.
If we are to pray like Paul, then let us delve into these three great truths for a moment.
First, What is the Hope of God’s Call? What has God called us to be and to do as his children? I’m not speaking in the sense of some specific vocational calling (although it certainly includes that type of call), but the more generalized calling made to all people of faith. The answer is found throughout the biblical story.
You may remember the “call of Abram” back in Genesis.
The Lord said to Abram, “Leave your land, your family, and your father’s household for the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation and will bless you. I will make your name respected, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, those who curse you I will curse; all the families of the earth will be blessed because of you.” Abram left just as the Lord told him, and Lot went with him. Now Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran.
From that example, we can see that we are called to be obedient and to walk by faith. Abram trusted God and proceeded to pack up everything and go to a place he could not see - fully relying on God’s promises. We are called to obediently go and do what God has told us to go and do.
What else does the Bible teach us about our calling?
In both the OT and the NT, the explicit command is given ‘you shall be holy, for I am holy’. We are called to be saints. A saint is a “holy one,” someone who is set apart for God's special purposes.
We are called to live free and not lapse into bondage to sin again. Gal. 5:1
Christ has set us free for freedom. Therefore, stand firm and don’t submit to the bondage of slavery again.
We are called to be One body - a beautiful fellowship that Christ has established across all human barriers of age, race and class. One Body as in 1 Cor 12:26
If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
We are called to suffer as Christ suffered. It is a fact of life in a broken world. The way to glory is through suffering. But there is always hope in our suffering.
Because we are called into God’s own kingdom. That is where our hope is found.
His calling on us is to be obedient, walk in faith, be saints, live in freedom, be unified as One Body, embrace suffering as the way into His Kingdom. We pray to know the “hope” of God’s calling.
Second, what is the “Glory” of his inheritance:
What is available now and before us who have responded to the call? In our Bible study on Hebrews, we recently discussed Hebrews 9:15
Hebrews 9:15 (ESV)
Therefore he (Jesus) is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.
Many, if not all, of you probably have a will drawn up that specifies what happens to your estate once you die. If you don’t, I highly encourage you to do so. Typically, in the will, there are promises made, “so and so will get the house, so and so will get the boat, all my money will go to my dog Bone” - whatever the will stipulates. The author of Hebrews explains in Hebrews 9:16-17
For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive.
Because Jesus died on the cross, the will is now in effect. The inheritance is ours, we benefit from the promises made now, although the inheritance will not be fully realized until Christ returns.
What do I mean by that? Today, we can receive forgiveness of sins. Today, we can go directly to God in prayer and worship Him, today we can receive a new, transformed life. Today we can belong to this beautiful fellowship called the Church.
But when He returns, and the promises are fully realized, then we will receive and experience the full glory of His inheritance!
we shall see God and his Christ face to face. Rev 21:3-4
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
We shall be like Jesus (our mortal bodies and our character transformed and fully sanctified)
We will enjoy perfect fellowship with God
We shall join a great multitude of saints from every tribe, people and tongue in worship. Rev 7:9
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands,
Pray that the Spirit will reveal to you the glory of His inheritance - this is what is ahead of us…the land which God has called us to enter.
But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”— these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.
Third truth, the Greatness of God’s Power
Pray that we would know the greatness of God’s immeasurable power
How often do you find yourself fretting about this world? If you watched the presidential debate this past week - you have good reason! How often do you worry about things? Do the problems of life at times seem too big - too all encompassing - impossible to overcome?
This part of the prayer is for you. That you may know the greatness of God’s immeasurable power. That you may comprehend what God was able to do when He caused Jesus’ dead body to rise again and walk out of the grave. And the power that Christ now wields as He sits at God’s right hand.
Again, John Stott writes…
The Message of Ephesians 3. The Greatness of God’s Power
The resurrection and ascension were a decisive demonstration of divine power. For if there are two powers which man cannot control, but which hold him in bondage, they are death and evil. Man is mortal; he cannot avoid death. Man is fallen; he cannot overcome evil. But God in Christ has conquered both, and therefore can rescue us from both.
In Christ, Death has no power over you. Yes, this mortal tent will wear out. But our life will go on and one day, we will receive new imperishable bodies. God has the power to do that.
In Christ, Evil has no power over you. The sin that bound you up, led you to disobey, stood in the way of your right relationship with God has now been paid. Sin has no hold on you. To be free from sin means that you are no longer under its control.
We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.
I challenge you, this week, during your prayer time, to lift up your brothers and sisters in the Lord. Pray that we all will know the “hope” of God’s call, the “glory” of His inheritance, and the “greatness” of His power.
We are praying to be Kingdom minded. This is the greatest treasure for us to receive, this is the deep knowing that will lead Grace to be a powerful and bright witness for the Lord in Cambridge and beyond.
Jesus said in Matthew 13:44-45
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.
Seek this treasure with all that you have.
Let us pray.