Untitled Sermon (4)

I. Introduction

Good morning, If you will I would like to invite you to turn in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter three we’re going to be looking at Ephesians chapter three verses 14 through 19. And while you are turning there let me just say that it is always a true privilege to get to come back here to New Life Baptist Fellowship Church and worship alongside of you for a couple of hours once agian. And I would just like to personally thank each one of you once again for the continual support that you have shown me over the years that I have been coming here to fill in for Pastor Kautz. There has not been a group of people who have continually stood beside me and supported me like y’all have.

We’re going to jump into the text here in just a minute but before we do I’d like to tell you about Martin Luther. As many of you know, Martin Luther was the father of the Protestant Reformation and he had a good friend and assistant by the name of Friedrich Myconius. In 1540, Myconius became sick and was expected to die shortly. On his deathbed he wrote a tender farewell message to Luther. When Luther read the message, he immediately sent a reply: “I command you in the name of God to live because I still have need of you in the work of reforming the church. The Lord will never let me hear that you are dead, but will permit you to survive me. For this I am praying, this is my will, and may my will be done, because I seek only to glorify the name of God.” While those words might seem bold and brash, the fact is that Myconius, who had already lost the ability to speak when Luther’s reply came, soon recovered from his illness, and lived six more years. He finally died two months after Luther did. What an amazing testimony to the power of prayer. Wouldn’t you like to be able to pray like that? I don’t know about you but I certainly would!

Perhaps one of the best ways to learn how to pray effectively is to study the many prayers recorded in the Bible, one of which we are going to look at today. Pay close attention in this prayer to how Paul makes three distinct petitions: A precedence of prayer, A Petition for power, a petition for love, and a petition to be filled with God. Listen here to what Paul had to say to the Ephesian Church: “for this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.”

II. Body [Exposition]

1. The Precedent of Prayer

[TS] Like I said we are going to examine three petitions that Paul makes starting with the first one where Paul makes a Petition for intercessory prayer. Look with me at verse Fourteen where he says “For this reason…” Wait a minute. What reason? We know that Paul is beginning to pray here, but why does Paul need to go before almighty God? Well to understand what and who he is praying for one needs to take a step back and examine the context of this prayer.

In the time of the Romans, Ephesus bore the title of “the first and greatest metropolis of Asia.” It was distinguished for the Temple of Diana, and according to Charles R. Swindoll, “Ephesus had a rigorous imperial cult with several temples dedicated to worship of the emperor.” The Gospel made its way to Asia very quickly after Pentecost (, ). Therefore, it is fair to assume that the Gospel made its way to Ephesus almost immediately after Pentecost. Paul journeyed through Ephesus in his second missionary journey (), but it was not until his third missionary journey that he stayed there for a considerable length of time ().

It is completely possible in the time that Paul has been away from Ephesus that false teaching has arisen causing division between Jews and gentiles. This would make sense considering Paul devotes the majority of the letter to focusing on cosmic reconciliation and unity in Christ.

You see, Paul needed to make the mystery of God clear to the Church at Ephesus so that they could grow and experience a closeness with Christ. Therefore, he says “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father.” And Friend, I am going to submit to you today, that we just like Paul need to be hitting our knees daily for those who need the Gospel to be made clear to them. What Paul does here in the middle of his letter is set the example of one aspect of the Christian life; namely prayer.

If we desire to have closeness with Christ, we need to be constantly carrying our every need and concern to Him. First of all because this act of asking God for help shows our total and complete dependency on Him. Secondly, we need to carry our every need to Him because He desires us to. There should be very few things that a father finds more joyous in life than to have his little children run to the door to greet him when he gets home from work. I can remember back to when my sister and I was in Elementary School. My dad taught at the High School and everyday my momma would bring me and sis home from School. But inevitably every day we would get home probably 30-45 minutes before dad. As we were watching TV in the Living Room the program would be interrupted by the sound of the garage door and sis and I were off to the races. Trying to see which one of us could give dad a hug first. Just in the same way, our heavenly Father desires for us to go sprinting to Him every day because we love Him so much. And lastly, we need to carry our every need to Him because we are commanded to. All over Scripture we are commanded to Go to the Lord in prayer. Even Christ displayed an urgent need to consistently Go to the Lord in Prayer and we should follow His, and Pauls example here and do the same.

[TS] Paul does not stop by setting the precedent to pray for the Ephesians, but he also makes a petition for power.

2. A Petition for Power

You see what Paul noticed about the Ephesian Church is that they were weak, and when one is weak they are in need of Strength. Therefore, Paul prayed that they would be given power.

I love Ray Pritchard’s explanation of this he says, “When you are weak, you need strength. And strength is the exact opposite of “losing heart” in verse 13. To be “strengthened with power” means to be made powerfully strong so that you can overcome the obstacles set before you. The word for power is dunamis, from which we get the English words dynamic and dynamite. When you are made strong in the inner man by the Holy Spirit, there will be power to blast out the unbelief, and power to overcome despair, and power to rise above anger, and power to keep going when you would rather quit. Note that this power is put to work in the “inner self” or the “inner man.” That “inner man” is the control room of life where every great decision is made. This is the place where we need the most help.”

How many times do we pray “Lord I am hurting, take the pain away” or “Lord I am in a pickle, change the circumstances please…”

You see, Paul wants the inner man to be strengthened or empowered because our greatest need is for spiritual power on the inside. No believer ever advances so far that he doesn’t need God’s power. And we would do well to realize this fact. Once again I’ll default to Pritchard where he says “I am only Human, which means, I’m not as hot as I think I am. I’m not as strong as I think I am. I’m not as wise as I think I am. I’m not as resilient as I think I am. I’m not as resourceful as I think I am. I’m not as good as I think I am.”

And friend, I have bad news cause you’re not either. I’m human and so are you. And that means we’re all in the same boat together, all of us desperately in need of the Holy Spirit to strengthen us on the inside. Therefore, Our prayers should not consist of “Lord, take away my burdens” but rather, we should exclaim “Lord, give me stronger shoulders to carry the load.”

[TS] Not only does Paul set a precedence for prayer, and petition for Power, he also makes a petition for Love.

3. A Petition for Love

Look with me at verse 17 where Paul prays that the Ephesian Church be “rooted and grounded” in love.

4. A Petition to be filled with God

III. Conclusion