FILL ‘ER UP:
A PRAYING COMMUNITY
Ephesians 3.14-21
S: Community
C: A Praying Community
Th: Building Up in Love; Doing Our Work
Pr: WE SHOULD PRAY FOR OUR SPIRITUAL GROWTH.
?: How?
KW: Requests
TS: We will find in our study of Ephesians 3.14-21 three requests we should be making in order to grow our spiritual self.
Type: Propositional
The ____ request is for…
I. POWER (16)
II. LOVE (17-19)
III. FULLNESS (19)
PA: How is the change to be observed?
• Pray together.
• Give our Lord the praise that is due Him.
• Pray with purpose.
Version: ESV
RMBC 17 September 06 AM
INTRODUCTION:
ILL Ask
What would you ask for if you found a genie-in-a-bottle and were granted three wishes that were bound to come true? If you could have three wishes fulfilled, what would you ask for?
Have you heard the story of a young man who found a genie-in-a-bottle? He is walking down the beach and comes across an old bottle. He picks it up, pulls out the cork and out pops a genie.
The genie says, "Thank you for freeing me from the bottle. In return I will grant you three wishes."
The man says, "Great! I always dreamed of this and I know exactly what I want. First, I want one billion dollars in a Swiss bank account." Poof! There is a flash of light and a piece of paper appears in his hand with account numbers.
He continues, "Next, I want a brand new red Ferrari right here." Poof! There is a flash of light and a bright red brand-new Ferrari appears right next to him.
He continues, "Finally, I want to be irresistible to women." Poof! There is a flash of light and he turns into a box of chocolates.
Well…
We need to be careful for what we ask for…
…don’t we?
TRANSITION:
1. The purpose of our discipleship emphasis is to become more deliberate followers of Jesus.
The word “deliberate” has been a theme with me because I believe in our theme for the year, that we are “a people with purpose.”
In fact, our purpose is so great and so wonderful, that it demands that we live intentionally.
We have been called to follow Jesus.
We have been called to follow the Lord and Savior of the world.
This is big.
This is great.
And it is what we hold in common as we meet together today.
Two weeks ago, we studied Ephesians 1, and there…
2. We (have) discovered that we are a community that God has called together.
In the context of God’s blessing and goodness, we have been called out of the world and its system to reflect the glory of God.
We are a called community.
We have heard that call, and answered it.
That is why we are here this morning.
Last week, as we studied the 2nd chapter of Ephesians…
3. We (have also) discovered that God has changed us and we have become a transformed community.
This transformation did not take place because of our effort.
No.
The change has come because of God, and His grace.
(8) For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, (9) not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
But that is not the end.
Change keeps coming.
God does His good work in us so that we will follow Him in doing good works…
(10) For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
This week, our study brings us to the third chapter of Ephesians, and we discover that…
4. We are also to be a community that prays.
We are to be a praying community.
Prayer is an essential for us.
We will not be firing on all our spiritual cylinders if we are not praying.
So, in order to grow and be moving, Randall needs to be a praying community.
This year has been a real learning year for me when it comes to prayer.
As I testified to at the beginning of the year, God has done some pretty profound things in my heart that have continued through the calendar year.
Some bring great joy.
Other matters bring humility, even to the point of humiliation.
Nevertheless, I keep praying.
I have spent more time in prayer during this past year, than in any of my 25 years in ministry.
And I have come to these conclusions.
I am still learning how to pray, and…
I still don’t understand prayer very well.
Maybe you join me in those conclusions.
In spite of that, I keep praying.
In our Western culture, we pay billions of dollars for weight control programs, botox injections, personal trainers and fitness machines, and clothes cut in the latest style.
We are into looks – outward looks.
And it occurred to me, this week, that our prayers, in some ways, reflect our fascination with the external.
For…
5. Typically, we pray for external matters.
As you go through our prayer bulletin, there are a lot of opportunities for intercession – our ambassadors, our president and government, the persecuted church, those that are sick, and our ministries.
It is a lot of outward things.
And, don’t get me wrong.
I believe wholeheartedly in intercession.
It is not bad to be praying about these things, but I do think that we need to be careful for what we ask for.
We need to be more comprehensive.
I am no better than anyone else in this.
For when I am having some physical problem, I am praying like crazy that the Lord will take it away.
It occurs to me, though, that we pray more for the pains that we face, than for the purposes of God.
While we are praying for our outsides, I think God is a whole lot more concerned with our insides!
He is really into what kind of person we are.
This is why…
6. WE SHOULD PRAY FOR OUR SPIRITUAL GROWTH.
God wants us, as believers, called and transformed, to live out that calling and to live the change He has accomplished.
We do this by living deliberately, exercising our spiritual muscles, yielding to the Spirit’s control, so that, we will decrease our frequency of sin.
We deliberately draw closer to God, knowing that the nearer we come to God, the further we distance ourselves from sin.
In the spiritual journal, one of the ways we are encouraging you to draw near to God is to be silent.
We were discussing this in our small group on Friday night and we recognized that we want to say to the Lord.
But what we have to say is based on finite knowledge.
Shouldn’t we be more adept at practicing listening to the Infinite?
There is so much more to be heard than to be said.
As we come to our passage today, it is a prayer by the apostle Paul regarding the church in Ephesus.
It is not like our typical prayers.
It is a big prayer, and an example to us on how we should pray.
So…
7. We will find in our study of Ephesians 3.14-21 three requests we should be making in order to grow our spiritual self.
As we read this prayer, note its Trinitarian nature.
Paul has in mind communicating the essence of God as three in one by connecting us with the strength of the Spirit, the indwelling of Christ and the fullness of God.
(14) For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, (15) from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, (16) that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, (17) so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith — that you, being rooted and grounded in love, (18) may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, (19) and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
(20) Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, (21) to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
As we have noted in our two previous studies, Paul is writing with deep emotion.
He has been communicating basic truths of who we are in Christ, that we have great, unlimited resources.
So, we are exhorted to claim and live by those truths.
As Paul begins this prayer, he tells the church at Ephesus, he is on his knees, demonstrating the intense passion he has for them as he submits to the Lord on their behalf.
In so doing, he comes to a tender, compassionate Father, who is always willing to accept the advances of His children.
And here are the requests he makes on their behalf…
OUR STUDY:
I. The first request is for POWER (16).
You see…
1. God is rich.
God’s abundance is way beyond our imagination.
It has overflowing proportions.
And note this…
This grandiose, majestic God reaches to us.
Omnipotence dwells with impotence.
ILL Prayer
George Mueller was a remarkable British Christian who supported his orphanage exclusively on prayer. Mueller never directly asked anyone for a contribution.
He simply prayed to God about his circumstances.
Someone observed to him, "It looks like a hand-to-mouth proposition."
"Yes, it is," Mueller responded, "But it is God’s hand and my mouth."
God is so rich.
And He has so much to give.
For example…
2. The Holy Spirit has strength to give us.
Paul prays that they will be strengthened with Holy Spirit power.
The idea is to be made strong, to be capable.
Where this power is to be found, though, is not in our physical body, but in our spirit, in our inner being.
Just as He encouraged Joshua as he entered into the Promised Land, God would have us be strong and courageous, trusting not in our own power, but in the strength that He provides.
II. The second request is for LOVE (17-19)
1. Jesus wants our heart as His home.
You see, God is not out there on the fringes of the universe.
He is willing to come as close as our hearts.
Note the invitation we find in Revelation 3.20, where Jesus says…
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.
Jesus wants to come in.
ILL Home
Robert Munger wrote a fascinating booklet entitled “My Heart Christ’s Home,” in which he pictures the Christian life as a house.
Jesus comes into the house and goes from room to room. He goes into the library of the mind and begins to clean up the trash found there. He replaces it with His Word.
He enters the dining room of the appetite and finds many sinful desires listed on a worldly menu. He replaces things like materialism, pride, envy and lust with humility, love and purity.
When he finally comes to the closet, the owner of the house hesitates to open the door to all his dark and secret sins. He can’t bear to have Jesus look inside. But Jesus does come inside only after He’s invited ¬ and cleans it up. Jesus then settles down and feels at home.
Jesus wants to make His home in us, but He cannot enjoy this home until we are cleansed from sin.
Think about this for a moment.
For this is wonderful…
The almighty God…the holy God…wants to live in our hearts, be at home there, and rule there.
It is at this point that the two concepts of home and love come together.
For…
2. The home is a place for committed love.
We understand that about the home.
A husband and wife…
Parents and children…
These are examples of love that is committed.
So, when Jesus dwells in us, His presence brings love.
His love is on display in us and through us.
Paul prays how he desires that love to exist.
He wants it rooted.
In other word, love is to be very deep in us.
He also wants it grounded.
Again, love is to have a solid base in us.
This means then, that God would have us love in the same selflessness that Jesus willingly and lovingly showed to us when He gave Himself to accomplish our redemption.
We too will want to serve others.
We too will commit to be caring and tenderhearted.
But, even if we do show this kind of love, Paul tells us in this prayer that…
3. The love of Jesus is greater than we can know.
But, no matter where we are, we are to have a deeper understanding.
We are to apprehend it, which means “to hold as one’s own.”
But though we are to hold on to it as if it is our own, Paul says it is do be done “with all the saints.”
That’s all of us.
In other words, comprehending God’s love is to be done together.
It is why our corporate worship is so vital to the community.
God desires us to have those “aha” moments, when we discover something new about Him, together.
It is here then Paul gets a bit descriptive.
It reminds me of this simple poem about God’s love.
ILL God
A weathercock that once graced
A farmer’s barn above,
Bore on it by its owner’s will
The sentence, "God is love."
His neighbor passing questioned him.
He deemed the legend strange.
“Now, you think that, like the vane,
God’s love can lightly change?"
The farmer, smiling, shook his head.
"Nay, friend, ’tis meant to show
That ’God is love’ whichever way
The wind may chance to blow."
Paul would agree,
For the love of God is so vast and complete that it goes in every direction and to the greatest distance.
For note…
3.1 How wide
…it goes.
His love accepts both the Jew and the Gentile.
His love reaches to all people, nations, sins, needs, cares, and situations.
His love even covers those who are wandering from the path of righteousness, for He chases after us when we stray.
Then note…
3.2 How long
…it goes.
His love chose us before the foundation of the world.
And His love leads us on the long path of righteousness.
Finally, His love will last for eternity!
Note again, then…
3.3 How high
…it goes.
His love extends to the highest angels.
His love raises us to the same heavenlies.
But to appreciate it fully, we note…
3.4 How deep
…it goes.
For His love reached and pulled us out of the depths of hell and removed us from Satan’s grasp.
He has taken us from the “guttermost to the uttermost”!
Now we come to…
III. The third request is for FULLNESS (19)
And we come to the crux of the matter.
For Paul would have the church know God in all that He is.
1. We are to be overflowing with God.
The verb here means “to make full, or to fill to the full.”
In other words, it is a picture of total dominance, it is all we see.
We are to be so full of God, then when we are seen and heard, it is God that is observed.
When this happens, we are getting to where God wants us to be.
For…
2. God desires us to be a people that truly represent and glorify Him.
It is here Paul breaks open with a doxology of praise.
For he sees that God is able.
He is able to do.
He is able to do exceeding abundantly.
He is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask.
He is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or imagine.
In other words, God’s capacity to meet His people’s spiritual needs far exceeds anything they can either request in prayer or conceive by way of anticipation.
How wonderful to know that there is no limit to His power.
Only our words and thoughts are limited.
So, the glory goes to God.
It happens through the church, the community, for this is the sphere of the outworking of God’s purpose.
Note this…
The honor of Jesus is in the hands of the church.
They are linked together.
Jesus is God’s purpose, and we are His body, to bless our generation and every one that succeeds us.
APPLICATION:
ILL Personal
We have a magnet on our refrigerator that says, “I can give up chocolate, but I’m no quitter.”
But the truth is, I am eating much less of it nowadays.
As many of you know, I was on a diet during the Spring, and I lost 20 pounds (and I am glad to say that I have kept it off since then).
Personally, I think people on diets are annoying, because all we can think about and all we talk about is food.
We go to a church dinner, like our “Just Because” and evaluate out loud what we can and can not eat, and tell everyone why they should not be eating certain foods.
People on diets, like myself, are irritating to be around.
But what is interesting is that it is very hard to be on a diet alone.
You need help.
You need encouragement.
And it really helps to have a partner not pushing food on you that you should not be eating.
I have been really glad that Dondra has not forced chocolate on me.
She has been a good teammate.
And this is true of us as well when it comes to the church.
We do not do church in isolation.
We do church as community.
So, what does this mean to us?
First…
1. Let’s seek the Lord together.
Let’s be a people that join together and pray with one mind.
Let’s be a people who pray according to God-sized expectations, and then live by those same God-sized standards.
I believe we can see God do great things if we will make Him the priority in our community.
We do that, in part, by submitting ourselves to Him in prayer together.
In addition…
2. Let’s give our Lord the praise that is due Him.
Paul exploded with praise here at the end.
He is excited, because Paul knows that when God gets the glory, his greatest and truest joy occurs.
This is true for us as well.
Our truest joy comes when God receives the glory.
Finally…
3. Let’s balance our prayers with purpose.
Let’s line up our prayers with God’s purposes.
We know that He wants us to attract unbelievers.
Let’s pray for that.
We know that He wants us to become spiritually formed.
Let’s pray for that.
We know that He would have us be effective in ministry.
Let’s pray for that.
We know that He would have us know and accomplish our life mission, effectively doing our part to make disciples, that is, committed followers of Jesus.
Let’s pray for that – to the glory of God.
For Further Study: Psalm 42. 1-2; Luke 21.36, II Corinthians 4.16; Philippians 1.9-10; Colossians 1.9-11; Revelation 3.20
BENEDICTION:
I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit.
Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him.
Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.
And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.
May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully.
Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.
Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever!
Amen.
Holy Bible, New Living Translation ®, copyright © 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
RESOURCES:
SermonCentral:
Bill, Brian How to Pray with Power
Jones, John I’m Not as Full as I Like to Be
Nerreau, Christopher Being Filled with the Fullness of God
Peredina, Alex A Prayer for the Graduate
Ruffcorn, Kevin Beyond Imagination
Thomas, Roger The Surprising Power of the Holy Spirit
Article:
Holladay, Tom “Helping Your Church Pray on Purpose” www.pastors.com
Books:
The Expositor’s Bible Commentary. 12 vols, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 11. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1978.
Foulkes, Francis. The Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians. 20 vols. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, ed. R. V. G. Tasker, vol. 10. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1978.
MacArthur, John, Jr. Ephesians. The MacArthur New Testament Commentary. Chicago: Moody Press, 1986.
