God Wants Us To Pray Like The Apostle Paul - Part 1 Series

God Wants Us to Pray Like the Apostle Paul - Part 1

Ephesians 3:14-21

Sermon by Rick Crandall

Series: The Book of Ephesians

(Prepared April 16, 2024)

BACKGROUND:

*Anyone who studies God's Word will find that it contains many prayers. The Dake Annotated Reference Bible lists 222 different prayers in the Bible: 176 in the Old Testament and 46 in the New Testament. (1)

*God put a multitude of prayers in His Holy Word. Why did He do that? One great reason why was to teach us how to pray. He also wanted to show us that prayer is essential for a healthy relationship with God. He wanted to show us the miraculous power of prayer. But God also put many prayers in the Bible because He wants us to pray! God even wants us to pray like the Apostle Paul, and great things will happen when we do. Please think about this as we read Ephesians 3:14-21.

MESSAGE:

*George Mueller lived in the 1,800s and was one of the greatest prayer warriors of all time. George kept a prayer journal over his long life, and recorded 50,000 answers to prayer! Mueller dedicated his life to helping orphans. By faith he started orphanages that cared for 10,024 orphans. During his lifetime, Mueller received the equivalent of over 7 million dollars to support his children's homes. That's over 165 million dollars in today's money! And all of it came through prayer. He also provided educational opportunities for orphans by establishing 117 schools that offered Christian education to more than 120,000 students.

*One of my favorite testimonies about George Mueller happened in August 1877. George was crossing the Atlantic on the SS Sardinian. The ship ran into terrible fog, and Captain Joseph E. Dutton later gave this report: "I had been on the bridge for 24 hours and never left it. And George Mueller came to me and said, 'Captain, I have come to tell you that you must be in Quebec on Saturday afternoon.' 'It is impossible,' I said.

'Then very well, if your ship cannot take me, God will find some other way. I have never broken an engagement in 57 years. Let us go down into the chart room and pray.' I looked at that man of God and thought to myself, 'What lunatic asylum can that man have come from, for I never heard of such a thing as this?'

Mr. Mueller, I said, 'Do you know how dense this fog is?' 'No,' he replied, 'My eye is not on the density of the fog, but on the living God who controls every circumstance of my life.'

He knelt down, and he prayed one of the simplest prayers. When he had finished, I was going to pray, but he put his hand on my shoulder and told me not to pray. 'As you do not believe He will answer, and as I believe He has, there is no need whatever for you to pray about it.'

I looked at him, and George Mueller said, 'Captain, I have known the Lord for 57 years and there has never been a single day when I have failed to get an audience with the King. Get up, Captain, and open the door, and you will find the fog has gone.'

*I got up and the fog indeed was gone, and on that Saturday afternoon George Mueller kept his promised engagement." (2)

*George Mueller had learned to pray like the Apostle Paul. And so can we! Our prayer life can surely grow. And this is essential, because our prayer life touches every other facet of our lives. Our prayer life can touch everything around us. Our prayer life can even touch the whole world! Why? -- Because in vs. 20 God "is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think!"

*Church: Our God is able, so let's start exploring how to pray like Paul.

1. FIRST: GOD WANTS US TO REACH OUT TO HIM WITH REVERENCE.

*That's what Paul did when he prayed. And we can see his reverence in vs. 14 where Paul said, "For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." Paul showed proper, humble reverence to God by bowing down to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

*But what's really important is not so much the position of our body. It's the position of our hearts. People in the Bible prayed in all positions, standing, sitting, kneeling, and face down on the ground. We also know that many people aren't physically able to bow down on their knees, so the important thing is the position of our heart, bowing our hearts in humble reverence for God.

*We see this truth in the parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector that Jesus told in Luke 18:9-14. There God's Word says: