8-28-2011

Every day a lot of praying takes place all around the world. In fact, Muslims pray five times a day, every day. Protestants and Catholics offer many prayers throughout the day. These prayer are different in many ways. Some prayers are just repeating certain words again and again. Some prayers are written, others are extemporaneous. Not all prayers are directed to the God of the Bible. Some prayers are directed to idols. Muslims pray to Allah, who, as far as I can tell, is not the same as the God of the Bible.

As Christians we know that we can come to God at any time, with any and every request. We also know that we don’t always know how to pray. In Eph.3 Paul concludes the first part of his letter with a prayer. This prayer is instructive. It helps to answer the question, “How do believers pray for one another in the church?”

I. PRAY FOR A DEEPER RELATIONSHIP WITH CHRIST. Eph.3:14-17a

I don’t know if you have noticed how Trinitarian the first three chapters of Ephesians are. Over and over again we read about the work of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Those who embrace Christ are brought into a deep relationship with God.

In v.14-15 we see that prayer is rooted in the Fatherhood of God. God is the father of all humanity. Now we all have earthly fathers and every earthly father is flawed. When we think of God as father, we must try not to look at God through the lenses of our earthly father. Rather God is the ideal Father. He is the Father of all fathers. And let me add that God is not male. There are any number of women who because of an abusive father have a difficult time accepting God the Father. But God is not male. He is not male or female. Again, we are thinking of fatherhood at its best.

So I’m reminded of what Jesus teaches us in Mt.7:9-11. There he says, “Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! When we come in prayer to God, we are praying to our heavenly Father who gives good gifts.

Notice what Paul prays. He prays that God would strengthen the Ephesian believers with power through the Holy Spirit so that Christ might dwell in their hearts by faith. Now what is this all about? Was not Christ already dwelling in these believers by faith? As best as I can understand, Paul is referring to an increasing experience with our Savior, Jesus Christ through the ministry of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.

The word that is translated, “dwell,” refers to a permanent residence as opposed to a temporary residence. Paul is praying that Christ would take an ever increasing place of prominence in the lives of believers. This is obviously very internal. We are not talking about some sort of outward conformity to religious rules and rituals. No. Knowing God through Christ is very internal. Christ dwells in us through the Holy Spirit and the effect of having Christ in us produces outward conformity to the character and virtues of Christ. Living a Christian life doesn’t make us a Christian. Knowing Christ makes us a Christian.

Now the fact that Paul prays this way suggests that it is possible for Christians to stagnate in their relationship with Christ. It is possible for Christians to allow other interests and obligations to usurp the rightful place of Christ in their lives. This is far more of a battle for us than we let on. Let’s suppose that your life is a publically traded business. Now since it’s our life we want to own and control most or all of the stock. We give some stock to our wife or husband. We give some stock to our employers, but we want to own as much of the stock of our life as possible. Paul is praying that Christ will own all of the stock of your life. In other words, Jesus wants the controlling interest in our lives. He’s not asking to buy the stock. He’s asking you to give him all the stock of your life. What do you think? Are you up for that?

Listen, when we pray for each other, we want to pray that the Holy Spirit will strengthen us to give Christ the preeminent place in our lives. What would that look like for you? What about your business? What about your schedule? What about your service to God and your worship of God? This is more important than anything else because knowing God through Christ is the most important matter in all of life. Everything we do in life is done with Christ and the kingdom of God in mind. Every day we ask, how can my work, my family life, my marriage, my free time contribute to the work of Christ in this world. Pray for a deeper, more abiding relationship with Christ.

 

II. PRAY FOR A GREATER APPRECIATION FOR THE LOVE OF CHRIST. Eph.3:17b-19

In Rm.5:5 we read, “And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” When a person surrenders his life to Jesus in faith, that person is rooted and established in the love of God. The love of God nourishes our life in Christ. The love of God establishes us in our life in Christ. Now you think, “Well, everybody has God’s love in them.” Not so. In Jn.5:42 Jesus is speaking to the Jewish religious leaders and he says to them, “but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts.” These were the religious leaders! You can’t have the love of God in your heart apart from Christ. So as believers we have the love of God poured into in our hearts. Surely having the love of God within us has to make some kind of difference in how we live. I will come back to this in a moment.

But notice how Paul goes on to pray that believers may have power to “grasp how wide, and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.” Paul prays that believers will have an ever increasing appreciation and understanding of the love of Christ. Admittedly the love of Christ involves more than mere knowledge. There is an experiential dimension as well. Perhaps this is why Paul tries to describe the love of Christ in special terms rather than trying to give some academic definition.

One of the early Church Fathers, Gregory of Nyssa, understood Paul’s reference to the width, length, height and depth of Christ’s love, to be a description of the cross of Christ. I don’t know if that is what Paul had in mind, but surely the cross of Christ is a deep expression of his love. I like the words of John Stott, when he writes, “...the love of Christ is ‘broad’ enough to encompass all mankind (especially Jews and Gentiles,,,,), ‘long’ enough to last for eternity, ‘deep’ enough to reach the most degraded sinner, and ‘high’ enough to exalt him to heaven."

No one knows fully what it means to be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. But we do know that God is love. The more we comprehend of the love of Christ as we walk in him, the of the fullness of God we will have.

But there’s something important for us to see. Paul prays that the believers would have power together with all the saints to grasp the love of Christ. Given the focus on unity between Jewish and Gentile believers in this letter, it strikes me that Paul is telling us something about how we grasp the love of Christ. We come to know the love of Christ individually and corporately. Love is always relational. You can’t have love without loving someone. Do you know how we learn about love? We learn about love by loving and being loved.

Now let me say something that some may not want to hear. If you are a Christian you should be a part of a local church; not just a member of a church, but an active member of a church. The church is the body of Christ. The love of Christ is most evident in the church. You say, “Well that hasn’t been my experience. I’ve been hurt in the church.” Welcome to the club. Why would you think that you would never be hurt in a church? Do you go into marriage thinking that you will never be hurt by your spouse because you love each other? The church is made up of people just like you. We are all learning and growing in Christ. We are all at different places in our Christian growth and maturity. We learn about the love of Christ as we learn to be kind and patient with each other. We learn about the love of Christ as we forgive one another just as the Lord forgave us. We learn about the love of Christ as we generously give to the work of the church in time, talent and finances.

Do not understand my words as just being a plug for greater commitment. No. I’m trying to help us understand the implications of being a follower of Jesus. When we receive the Lord’s Supper together, together we are grasping something about the love of Christ. We live the Christian life together not alone.

 

 

III. PRAY THAT THE CHURCH WILL BRING GLORY TO GOD. Eph.3:20-21

Paul brings chapters one to three to a close with a doxology of praise to God. What kind of God is worthy of such praise? It is the God who is able; the God who is able to do more. Not just more, but immeasurably more; more than all we ask or imagine. This God is the God who is already working in us. God is doing his saving, sanctifying work in us even as we speak.

Is this God not worthy of all glory, honor and praise? Paul write, “To him be glory in Christ Jesus. Christ lived to bring glory to the Father. In Jn.17:4 Jesus prays to the Father, “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.” God is glorified in Christ. But Paul also writes, “To him be glory in the church.” Clearly the church is to bring glory to God. What does this mean?

When you work for a company, you know that if you work in such a way as to promote the reputation and success of the company, you have a greater chance of being promoted or rewarded than if you just work for yourself. Obviously it doesn’t always work that way, but I’m fairly confident in saying that if you work only to promote yourself, you will not be promoted in the company. Companies like team players who think beyond themselves.

In 1Cor.10:31 Paul says, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” We don’t live for ourselves. We live to bring glory and honor to God. That impacts everything we do, everyplace we go, and everything we look at. Does it bring glory to God?

And notice again that we glorify God corporately as the church. In other words, what we do as a church should be aimed at bringing honor to God. We bring honor to God in corporate worship, corporate giving, corporate service, and corporate fellowship. We won’t do this unless all of us are focused on glorifying God together.

So when we pray for each other and for the church, let us pray that we will have it in our hearts to bring glory to God in every generation, and that the Holy Spirit will strengthen us to that end.

 

A friend of mine recently told me that he prays for me ever Sunday as I preach. This man lives in Mississippi. I didn’t know he prays for me. When someone says they are praying for you, aren’t you grateful? Brothers and sisters, praying for one another is one of the most important ministries we can enter into. This is why I believe Wednesday Prayer meeting is so important. I wish I could make it enticing, but there isn’t a whole lot that is enticing about prayer. It’s a corporate work that we do in behalf of the body of Christ here at Forest Park Baptist.

A friend of mine recently told me that he prays for me every Sunday as I preach. This man lives in Mississippi. I didn’t know he prays for me. When someone says they are praying for you, aren’t you grateful? Brothers and sisters, praying for one another is one of the most important ministries we can enter into. This is why I believe Wednesday Prayer meeting is so important. I wish I could make it enticing, but there isn’t a whole lot that’s enticing about prayer. It’s a corporate work that we do in behalf of the body of Christ here at Forest Park Baptist. I wish I could make it mandatory, but not really. That doesn’t build mature followers of Christ. So I urge you, and appeal to you to pray for one another, and consider attending Wednesday prayer meeting. We need to pray! We need you to pray! Amen