A Pastor's Prayer Series

A Pastor’s Prayer

Text: Eph. 1:15-23

Introduction

1. "A preacher must be both soldier and shepherd. He must nourish, defend, and teach; he must have teeth in his mouth, and be able to bite and fight."

2. A number of years ago, God called me to be a Pastor, and shepherd to his people. Fortunate for me, I’ve had a lot of good teachers and role models, but none greater than the Apostle Paul.

3. Paul loved his people. He taught them, protected them, admonished them and encouraged them. But more than anything else, he prayed for them.

4. In our text today, we see Paul’s love for his people through his prayer. We will see…

a. The motivation of his prayer.

b. The foundation of his prayer.

c. The potentiality of his prayer.

5. Read Eph. 1:15-23

Proposition: It is my prayer for you today to see how blessed you are and how much power is at your disposal because we are united in Christ.

Transition: First, Paul talks about his…

1. Motivation (15-16).

A. Ever Since I Heard

1. When you think of the Apostle Paul many things come to mind: evangelist, church planter, scholar and martyr. But above all else, Paul was a Pastor, a shepherd of God’s people.

a. And one of the primary responsibilities of a Pastor is to pray for his flock. This was something that Paul took very seriously.

b. I’m sure that Paul had knees like a camel for all of the hours he spent in prayer for his people.

2. In v. 15 Paul explains why he prayed for the believers in Ephesus. He says, “Ever since I first heard of your strong faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for God’s people everywhere...”

a. The phrase “ever since I heard” has led some scholars to believe that Paul had actually never met the Christians in Ephesus. On the other hand, it really doesn’t matter if he had met them or not, because he had heard about them.

b. Things that he had heard about them was the motivation for his prayers for them. He had heard, first of all, about their “strong faith in the Lord Jesus.”

c. The word faith means to “trust in, cling to and rely on.” They had placed their complete trust and reliance on the Lord Jesus, and they did so in such a strong way that word was traveling about it.

d. Have you ever played the telephone game? That’s where someone whispers something in someone’s ear, and then they whisper something in the next person’s ear, and so on until everyone in the room has heard it. By the time you get to the last person, the thing the first person whispered is completely different from the last person.

e. But that is not happening here. What Paul is hearing and what people are saying is that the believers in Ephesus are people of great faith!

3. The next thing that Paul is hearing about them is their love for all of God’s people.

a. Now, Scripture is clear that one of the hallmarks of the Christian is love.

b. It is the supreme characteristics of a Christian, and as Christians, we are expected to love everyone.

c. In fact, Jesus said we are even to love those that hate us. But he is even more clear that we are to love one another, meaning other Christians.

d. 34 So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. 35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” (Jn. 13:34-35, NLT).

e. Now, I am fairly certain that we have heard the song “They’ll Know We Are Christians By Our Love,” at least most of us here know it, because we sang it not long ago.

f. But it is without question the number one way that people know we are disciples of Christ by the way we love each other.

g. And word was getting around the disciples in Ephesus were being noticed for it.

4. It was for these reasons, strong faith and love for God’s people that Paul says in v. 16, “I have not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly...”

a. Now, I cannot think of a greater compliment that you could give another person than to say, “I always thank God for you!”

b. To me this is the best thing you could ever say about anyone. But what Paul says next is even more remarkable, “I pray for you constantly.”

c. Now, this does not mean all Paul did was pray for this church, because anyone can read the NT and know Paul had a lot of other things to do. But it does mean that he prayed for them on a regular basis.