Hungering For His Presence Series

Turn your Bibles to Ephesians 3:14-20

Title: Hungering for His Presence

Theme: Praying for the Sunday Morning Service

Series: Girding up the Church

Introduction: I love the heart of the psalmist who wrote “I rejoice with those who said unto me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” (Psalm 122:1) This is the heart expression of Christians who share the Apostle Paul’s revelations of Christ and His work in the children of God.

We read about his heart and of his prayer in Ephesians 3:14-20, “For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom His whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us…” (Ephesians 3:14-20) Pray!

Proposition: I would propose to you that the Sunday morning service is meant to be a time when the children of God can see the Lord do a powerful work among His people. It should be the desire of all who attend the Sunday morning worship service to see God do a great work among those who live in Norton County Kansas because Jesus Christ was obedient unto death and gave His life for the lost in our area as well as sinners all over the world.

I am fully convinced just as the Lord God looked upon the Israelites in Egypt and saw their misery because of their slave drivers, (Exodus 3:7) He can look down from heaven and see those who are in this world now and their misery as they are in slavery to the bondage of the flesh, the world, and the lies of the devil. Just as God sent Moses to do a great work in Egypt, in His mercy He can do a work in Norton to cause sinners to cry out to God, that He might send the Great Deliverer, the Holy Spirit of Christ to set them free from the bondage of sin.

It is my constant prayer that God would do a work in Norton and make CrossRoads Church a literal spiritual hospital. That is, a place where God is doing the powerful work of spiritual heart surgery, taking away hearts of stone and putting in hearts of flesh, where He is putting His Spirit in them moving born again Christians to keep His decrees and follow His laws. (Ezekiel 36:26,27) I pray we are church where believers in Christ are crying out “Jesus teach me to pray” and exercising Spiritual gifts out of sacrificial love.

Interrogative Sentence: Just how can this come about? Just how can we be like the Apostle Paul who was in constant prayer for the Church of Christ? We read one of his intercessory prayers for the Body of Christ in Colossians 1:9-12, “For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.” (Colossians 1:9-12)

Transitional Sentence: The Sunday morning service that is going to touch lives and cause people to say, “The Lord was among us” has Christians who are hungry for the presence of God. There is a phrase in the Old Testament that shares God’s heart. We read that phrase in several passages, one of them being Exodus 25:8, "Then have them make a sanctuary for Me, and I will dwell among them.” (Exodus 25:8) At least two other times the Lord God expresses His desire to dwell among His people. (Exodus 29:46; Numbers 5:3)

The term “I will dwell among them” gives a truth that God longs to be so present with His children to receive petitions and give them His response. He longs to anoint all that is being done to enable worshipers to be aware of His presence. All through Biblical history the Lord God has granted different dispensations so mankind can prove their love for Him as they congregate to seek His presence and enjoy His work alongside others who love Him and are hungry to witness Him manifesting Himself in very revealing ways.