Why do we pray?

Bubba Millet

Connected • Sermon • Submitted a year ago • Presented a year ago

Ephesians 3:14–21

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Transcript

Ephesians 3:14-21.

Announcements

DNOW meeting next Wednesday night after services in the game room or feeding room

High School small group

Super Bowl Party

Introduction

“Why” is a significant question of our lives.

When we find ourselves doing anything, we often ask “why.”

We especially ask this question when we do something we don’t necessarily like.

Sometimes we like the answer; sometimes we don't.

I believe we ask this question because we want our time to matter.

When we do something we value or see value in our time, it’s more easily invested.

Our question for this session

We have answered a series of questions throughout this series:

What is prayer?

How do we pray?

When do we pray?

The question we’re asking tonight is woven into all of these other questions. It is perhaps the most important one: Why do we pray?

What is prayer? We learn about prayer to see the value in it.

How do we pray? We refine our ability to step into God’s presence.

When do we pray? Knowing prayer's importance allows us to see a constant need for it.

Which brings us to this message.

We want to study God’s Word to answer the question of why.

If we ever doubt the need or power for prayer, we will hopefully come back to this message as a marker for why.

Background

Our passage is found in Ephesians.

Paul is writing to the church at Ephesus.

We know more about this church than most of the churches Paul writes to.

On his third missionary journey, Paul spends a significant amount of time with this church.

We know and can relate to the struggles of the church at Ephesus.

False Idols

We may not bow down to plastic or ceramic figurines, but we do bow down to plastic hardware made by Apple.

False Teaching

People were misrepresenting Scripture and Jesus.

Paul reminds the church of why he prays, and we want to learn alongside them.

We Pray for Strength

[Read Ephesians 3:14-16]

Optional Illustration: Fake Strength

[This is an excellent spot to connect with your group by sharing a story from your own life. This enables them to connect with you from beyond the pulpit. It shows you as more than a speaker, but a person. Here is the story I used to communicate how appearing strong doesn't make you strong. Read it and get a feel for the concept I was utilizing. Then, tell a story of how you faked confidence or actual physical strength here.]

When I was in high school, I had an opportunity at a pep rally to go head-to-head against another person in the school in a weightlifting competition. I was a senior at the time, and I was an incredibly skinny guy who could barely lift the bar. My opponent was a ninth-grade girl who was on the United States Junior Olympic Team for weightlifting. The result of who was going to win was obvious, but here we are heading into the pep rally.

I did what any well-meaning participant who is weak would do; I made it look like I was super strong. I took dodgeballs and stuff them under my shirt by my shoulders to make me look super strong. I made a joke about the whole competition, trying to hide how weak I was.

Rather than prepping for the competition by actually lifting weights, I decided to fake it with a costume hoping for a little laugh. Here's the thing though, no number of laughs would make me physically strong, and no amount of fake muscles would allow me to lift those weights. If I wanted to be strong, I had to find somewhere to gain strength from. The same is true in our spiritual lives when it comes to strength.

Prayer gives strength to our inner being (vs. 17)

This strength comes from God and God alone.

We don’t pray and just become better people. We become stronger and better when we pray because we are connecting with our life source.

A.W. Tozer said, "If the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today, 95 percent of what we do would go on, and no one would know the difference. If the Holy Spirit had been withdrawn from the New Testament church, 95 percent of what they did would stop, and everybody would know the difference."

This can be crushing to hear as a church.

Do we lean into God’s strength?

Do we need God to have our services?

Do we need God to get through school?

Do we need God to help us have hard conversations?

Do we need God to make mission trips?

The obvious yes is sometimes lacking

We can look at all of those questions, answering absolutely! Is this a reality?

Churches and people can pride themselves in strong programming or organizational skills.

What safeguards do we have in our lives to help us rely on the Holy Spirit?

Transition

We need God’s strength, but this can’t be a surface level relationship. We will never receive the strength from God we need unless we can go deeper. Let us keep reading in the passage.

We Pray for Roots

[Read Ephesians 3:17-19]

Optional Illustration: Giant Sequoias in California

Is there anyone in the room who has ever been to California? Giant Sequoia trees can grow up to 300 feet tall, and weigh over 2 million pounds. These are huge trees, and standing near them gives us perspective just how small we are. One of the fascinating parts of trees are the roots. Even for small trees, the root system can grow in a vast distance away from the base of the tree.

I got excited thinking about the roots for a Giant Sequoia, wondering just how large these roots could be. [This could be an excellent opportunity to put a picture of a Giant Sequoia stump on the screen.] If you look at these roots in comparison to a person, it's incredible seeing how large they are. A full-grown Giant Sequoia’s roots can extend beyond an acre away from the base of the tree.

These trees will never grow to their full potential without an intricate network of roots. The roots go deep and wide, which allows for a strong foundation for the tree's growth. A tree can only grow as tall as its roots allow it. You will never find a tall tree with a small root system, and you will never find a strong Christian without a deep foundation in Christ. We pray for roots.

“No substance” means “no growth”

The passage points out we are to be rooted in the love of Christ.

When we don’t find ourselves rooted in Christ, we lack the strength to comprehend what Christ has done and will do.

without depth in our roots, there is no substance to our relationship with God.

Leads to love and beyond

We not only receive love when we are in relationship with Christ, but we also gain a knowledge of this love which surpasses all understanding.

When we gain this knowledge, we have a better understanding of the God who fights on our side.

When we root ourselves in Christ, we are making our foundation something which lasts.

Obstacles can be overcome

The world wants us to have roots, but those roots are supposed to be in Christ.

When our roots are in the wrong things, we lose the nutrients and energy needed to overcome the struggles of our lives.

I don’t know many adults who would willingly choose to go back to middle school or high school because there are many challenges there.

I do know God is larger and greater than any of the challenges being presented in these years, though.

God becomes the source of our strength when we find our roots in Him through prayer.

A deep prayer life offers a change in perspective, contrary to the world's perspective.

How do we do this?

Start our day with God, and then we seek Him throughout the day.

Ask everyone in the room to take a deep and audible breath.

Radical truth: it was God who allows us to take that breath.

When we wake up in the morning, a miracle has occurred. We were never promised tomorrow, and therefore we must take advantage of each day.

A tree’s daily life

A tree doesn't uproot itself and walk around the woods. This is not typical behavior for a tree, and often if uplifted from its roots, death is imminent. For a tree to thrive when it's misplaced, it takes years for its roots to redevelop.

A tree will spend its day looking for nutrients and sunlight to further its growth and roots.

When a tree seeks nutrients for its roots, it gains potential. God sees our potential, but we must spend our days seeking Him and His will.

Transition

We need prayer to find strength, and we gain strength through our roots in Christ. There is one more thing we pray for, and we find it at the end of this passage.

We Pray for Fullness

[Read Ephesians 3:19-21]

One little word

Is there a difference in these two phrases?

I’m eating Grandma.

I’m eating with Grandma.

We see the word “that” in vs. 19.

We do all of these things so THAT we may be filled with all the fullness of God.

We gain strength, knowledge, and roots so THAT we may be filled with the fullness of God.

Optional Illustration: Full with God

I want to illustrate this idea of fullness, and we're going to use an extremely visual representation. This bucket here represents your area of influence. For some of you, this is your home; for some of you, this is your school. It can be your sports team, your gaming community, or even your friend group. Less can be held in the glass, which is you, than in the larger bucket.

Each day your glass is going to be filled with something, and when you commune with God in prayer, He fills you up. When we pray for strength and roots, God fills our cup up with water. [Pour a glass of water.] This isn't the only thing we can fill ourselves up with, though. We can fill ourselves up with snapchat, or video games, or Instagram. We can believe in the value of being the starter on the team or having the most friends. [While you describe these things, pour a glass of chocolate milk.]

When we find ourselves in our sphere of influence, we are going to pour something out. [Pour the chocolate milk into the bucket.] When we fill ourselves up with what the world offers, then we only have to provide what the world gave us. [Pick up and pour the glass of water into the bucket.] When we commune with God; however, we gain the ability to pour Christ into our sphere of influence. We get to show Christ's love to the world around us when we experience it ourselves.

This isn't where the journey stops, though. [Place both glasses in front of the pitcher of water.] What happens when you try and look through this glass which held the water, what do you see? You see God, the pitcher of water. People can see so clearly through us because our filth and shame are washed away. What do they see on the other side, what we've had pouring into us which is Christ? What happens when you try and look through the glass which held the chocolate milk, what do you see? You can maybe see God, but you mostly see the film and remains from the milk. When we fill ourselves up with what the world offers, we are left stained and dirty. Not only are we dirty, but we block others from seeing Christ. When people look at us, they don't see Jesus, but rather our mess.

How does the cup become clean?

Vs. 20-21 say to Him who is at work in us, to Him be the glory.

Can a cup clean itself of its strength? No.

We need water to clean a cup, and we need outside intervention to wash a cup.

Whether you have an active prayer life now or not, we have all been this dirty and stained cup at one time.

Christ comes in and cleans our mess by filling us up with Himself.

Our Filling Will Be Our Outpouring

What are you choosing to fill yourself up with?

When we wake up in the morning, what do we seek first? Prayer or our phones?

When we go to bed at night, what do we seek first?

When we have lulls in the day what do we seek first?

What we pour into our lives will directly influence what we offer others.

When we seek the fullness of Christ, we offer the world what it doesn’t have. We offer Jesus.

When we are filled with Jesus and seek Him, we have nothing else to offer the world. This is where we gain the ability to give Jesus all the glory throughout all generations.