Sermon Text: “History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
This quote has haunted me – perhaps for years – but especially since George Floyd’s death led to a cascading series of cries for racial justice. The church is called to provide people with the means through which they can have communion and fellowship with God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Prayer is an Action word! We are rooted in the love of Christ!
In Ephesians 3:14-15, the writer rises above culture and tradition in order to show us that God is a parent to all humanity. The author is spiritually aware that God is inclusive of all people, nations, genders, and ethnicities. In other words, the language of the family is in the author’s heart, mind, and soul. We are family or even everybody has a right to live.
Being aware of God, the author prays that Ephesian believers will be indwelled by the Holy Spirit whose office is to form faith in the hearts of all God’s children.
The Holy Spirit is meaningful when it offers people what they need in times of hardships, instead of what they want. Hence, this prayer for the Ephesians, knowing that only prayer would strengthen their hearts and open new possibilities in their congregations.
Prayer is what the soul requires, and God seeks to communicate with us through prayer.
“I pray that you may be strengthened,” writes the author of the letter. “You” being the church, or us. Paul is praying that we might come to understand something of what is going on here. He prays that we might know the love of Christ that is beyond knowledge!
Our prayers and our songs should be full of the experience of being loved into wholeness, being “rooted and grounded” in Christ love, so that we can begin to see that all our actions, all our doing in the world is motivated or in response to the love that defines us.
Wesley, We in the church, like the Ephesian Church, need to rediscover prayer and learn as well as grow in the art of prayer.
In the Gospels, Jesus is portrayed as a prayerful leader. In the Gospels, the disciples requested Jesus to teach them about prayer and praying.
Summoning the Holy Spirit’s power, this passage prays that disciples in Ephesians be given power and strength to build up each other and also build the kingdom of God.
Move 1) We need a Doxology:
The Church today needs to revive the art of prayer, fasting, and believing. In essence, the entire Ephesians letter can be called a prayer book. Hence, this section introduces us to a prayerful apostle, who summons all believers to carve out time for prayer. Ephesians 3:14–21 is not just an intercession prayer but it is also a doxology in which the author acknowledges the power of Christ Love. A doxology is a short hymn of praises to God in Christian worship, often added to the end of canticles, psalms, and hymns. It is what I would call a prayer sealer after you pray the doxology is praise that seals the prayer.
With doxology comes also an expression of the faith in Jesus Christ, the one whose spirit draws humanity into one faith community. When we cry out praise God from whom all power comes praise father son and holy ghost we are demanding of the universe that it feels the presence and power of God.
This doxology prayer for the Ephesian church calls on the power and substance of the Holy Spirit so that the church will continue to grow as a multicultural faith community. That the Church praises God for all the children all Gods delivers. Faith is like an orphanage or a hospital the church can’t pick and choose race, class, or gender when God is blessing it with followers. For God, everyone is welcome God does not divide us into rich and poor black or white, educated or hood God VALS’s us all family.
As pastors, leaders, parents, and siblings in Christ, we are called to prioritize prayer in all that we do on behalf of God.
We are also called to seal that prayer with the type of faith a type of Doxology that believes God is making us family.
Move 2) Kneel and Pray to the Father
Strangely enough, most Christians have lost the art of kneeling in prayer, and instead, prayer is taken as a ritual if not an item on a to-do list.
It is important to see the message embedded in this passage: the author is praying to God as a father figure with words revealing an intimate and life-giving relationship.
It is indeed crucial to remember that human souls cannot be fed by food, money, power, or ego, but by connection through prayer.
We may also take note of the kneeling posture, and teach ourselves to pray in such a manner. Kneeling demonstrates that the praying person is one who has reverence for God, submission, as well as the adoration of God. The problem with a lot of us is we don’t want to submit, surrender to God we want to stand up straight and tell God what to do!
While the Bible speaks deeply about the need for prayer, The Church today seems not to have time to pray. However, in Ephesians 3:14–21, we also see the writer has a relationship with God and is considered a member of the family.
As Church Leaders, we should perhaps reread Ephesians as it is a book about prayer, and for prayers. Divine healing and life miracles are all manifested if one lives a life of dependence on God. Jesus’ time on earth with the disciples was filled with prayers and miracles. Intimacy with God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit is possible in and through prayer.
In critical seasons like this global pandemic, droughts, wars, hunger, shootings of people, HIV/AIDS, polarization, and many other dehumanizing experiences, the church is called to institute prayer and invite people to prayer.
Move 3) You need Christ-Like Love
The love that the author focuses on in Ephesians 3:18–19 is not just temporal, but Christ’s Love is both earthly and eternal.
As in verse 18, Christ’s love can rescue a sinner from hell, if one believes.
In the church today, the boundless love of God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit is not realized. A lot of the reason churches are falling and feeling is they are running empty on loving one another. Churches have forgotten that Jesus is lobe and the teacher of love.
Maybe life challenges and COVID–19, have robbed people and communities of their experience of Christ’s boundless love.
As Church leaders, we have to pray that people experience and live in the boundless love of Jesus Christ (3:19).
Realizing Christ’s love will lead to spiritual growth, faith formation, and character in people’s lives. People, especially nowadays know temporal love, and many people have been cheated, dumped, and humiliated by people, if not the church itself.
Hence, their trust and love for the Church are deeply low.
Just as Ephesians 3:20–21 ends with praise and acknowledgment of God, it is urgent that our church Wesley once again emphasize and teach believers about the importance of praising God.
If you want to get out of the pandemic Praise your way out if you want to get out of bad relationships praise your way out if you want to get out of generations of economic disparities praise doxology, Kneel your way out.
Let me see if I can make this plain:
ILL. In the 1950s The Communist Party in the USSR, Russia put out a heavy assault upon the underground Christian church with large billboard signs reading, “The Reign of Christ is Over.” The underground church met to counteract this damaging propaganda. After much thought and consultation, they decided not to take the signs down or to change any of the letterings. Rather, they decided to just add one word to each of the signs, “ALL.” The signs would then read, “The Reign of Christ is Over ALL!” Those church people showed us that we can always make the best out of any situation if we just know what to add.
I’m suggesting that The Love of Christ is All over You, All over Us! God’s spirit and praising God are not optional parts of faith, but they are a must in every church and every Christian believer. To praise is to worship, and without praise, there is no true worship.
