New Testament Prayers: Week 3
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
My name is Spencer, I'm one of the pastors here. We are in week three of a four week series on New Testament prayers. So we are looking at some prayers that are in the New Testament and trying to capture some of the truth that is bound up in them so that it might encourage us in our prayers but also help us grow in the discipline of prayer which is vital for the life of the Christian. So we'll finish this, we have one next week and then we'll jump back into Second Samuel. So we're gonna be in Ephesians chapter three today, verses 14 through 21. It's on page 568 in the blue Bibles. If you don't have a Bible at home, please take that blue Bible. That's a, that's a gift we want. You have a Bible that you can read, but you can follow along with us. The text will also be on the screen.
There are some things in life that you learn kind of on your own through reasoning and all types of things. And then there are things that happen to you that just change you. Some external forces that just absolutely change your life. So this can happen in a variety of ways. One of the clear ones that happened for me was when we had our first child. So, you know, heard for years that we have a child, it'll change you. Have a child, it will change you. And kind of do that at some experiential level. That was going to happen before we had a kid. We had a, we had a dog. So we got a little bit of a jump start on taking care of some type of creature. And we loved that dog. I didn't like that dog. You've been here long enough, you've heard enough stories about that dog. That dog was the worst. But we loved it, took care of it. And then like lady and the Tramp, that story that plays out over and over again, we had a child and that child, like when you first hold your child in the hospital or if you adopt a child and the agency places that child with you either, and you're in the room with that child for the first time, like there's just something that happens within you. External force just comes in and it just, you, you thought you, you, you knew this category of love and that just gets deepened in ways that are just so profound and wonderful. And when I held my daughter for the first time, it was just powerful. Then went home and I saw that dog and I was like, I hate you. Like, I love, I love this child so much. With the Love that I had this child. I just is a disdain by comparison. But there's just something happens. There's external forces that work in you. That's not just limited to children. Sometimes experiences happen to you and it changes you. And none of those hold, hold a. Hold a flame to. When the Lord determines to work in our lives in powerful ways, the external force of who our Lord is is working in our hearts. It changes us in ways that are profound. And that's what this prayer is today. It's capturing that. It's a prayer for God to. To work powerfully within us. So we're going to see this prayer and see the encouragement that comes with a prayer like this and then also see the fruit that comes from these types of prayers. So let me pray for us and then we'll walk through this piece by piece.
Heavenly Father, I thank you that you do work in mighty ways. And I pray that this would be a morning in which you do that you would work in our inner being, in our hearts, in profound ways that help us not just hear your word, but do it. But that comes not from ourselves. It comes from you. And we ask that you do that in Jesus name. Amen.
All right, so this prayer begins in the middle of. Towards the end of chapter three with for this reason. Okay, we're going to stop there. So this happens in Ephesians. You see this phrase for this reason over and over again. And what's happening is that Paul is drawing to mind what he said previously. He's building on truth that he's already established for this reason. And we saw this a little bit in week one. Chet, in week one of this series went to a prayer in Ephesians chapter one. And that was built upon the truth that came before that, which is the first few verses of Ephesians is this. This declaration of how God plans to redeem his people, that he chooses us and he redeems his people. And then Chet walked us through this prayer of wanting to know God and experience his glory in profound ways. Then when you get to chapter two, those first 10 verses one through 10 and chapter two are some of the most, I would argue, one of the most important passages in all the Scriptures. It is a beautiful summary of the gospel. That we were once dead in sin. We were sons of disobedience, children of disobedience, that we were wayward and that God, in his mercy, he saves us by grace through faith, not of our own doing. So if you're looking to grow in some scripture memory this year, and you have no place to start. I can't think of a better place to start than that passage right there. Builds upon that talks about how Jews and Gentiles are both a part of the same household of God, of how God dwells in his church. So really, for this reason, builds upon the gospel that he's articulated with such beauty and specificity. And those first three chapters, because the gospel is good news.
> For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,
> from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,
> that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,
> so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
> may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
> and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
> 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,
> to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. Stop there. As I bow my knees, which just for a moment, we should consider our posture when we pray. Now, I'm not being dogmatic on this. I'm not saying that every time you pray you have to bow on your faith, bow on your knees, that every time you pray you need to be on your face before the Lord. I think you can drive and pray. I think you can sit in a chair and pray. But if the only posture by which we pray is a comfortable posture, I think we're missing something. In prayer, there's something about the physical body and how God has made us in the position of bowing before the Father, laying prostrate on your face before the Father. And if that's not an aspect of your prayer life, it should be because it brings humility within us. There's a physical humility displayed when we bow before the Father in prayer. That's what he's doing here. I bow before the Father, which also should be noted. This prayer is very trinitarian in its language, very explicitly. So going to see Father, Son and Holy Spirit in this prayer. And as most prayer in the New Testament that we see, all the prayers that we see written, some of the teachings that we see on prayer, normative patterns of prayer are to the Father, but we also think of our triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. So this begins with I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and earth is named. Throughout every family, every creature comes from, from his creation that we're named, that God's sovereignty and all of this is implied here.
And then we have verses 16 through 19, which is very dense, very rich, and it is a lot. So we got to kind of take it component by component. Because Paul's breaking down one kind of overarching truth for us piece by piece. My wife and I, we were trying to teach our kids some life skills and try to teach them to make a sandwich. You could just say, get on in there and make it. Make yourself a PB and J. It's like, no, it's like, this is how it works. Step one, get the bread out. Step two, get the jar of peanut butter. Put the knife in the jar, get the peanut butter out, smear it over this one piece, then take the a paper towel and wipe that peanut butter off. Because only psychopaths put that straight in the jelly. You know who you are. Leaving peanut butter remnants in the jelly like a. And then get the jelly smear in the bread, and then we piece it together and then you've got the sandwich. Right? So Paul's component by component here, there's one overarching sandwich, one big truth he's trying to give us, but he's got to break this down. So we're going to have to take this piece by piece to see what he's getting at here.
In this prayer, he says that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being. Okay, sit there. That first part, according to the riches of his glory, Chet helped us see in week one of this. He was quoting Herman Babnik, a theologian from a century ago, and describing glory and defining it. He said, the glory of God is the infinite, indescribable perfection and beauty of all the other attributes that all the good and wonderful attributes of God, his goodness, his faithfulness, his power, his might, and on and on, shine brightly in a way that displays glory. And he says, according to the riches of that glory, this indescribable, infinite, marvelous glory says, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with the power through his spirit in your inner being, to be strengthened with the power of spirit through his spirit, the Holy Spirit in your inner being. Okay, let's pause there for a moment.
There is an American lie that is told repeatedly over and over again that if you look inside yourself, inherit to who you are, you'll discover power, you'll discover greatness. And that greatness will help you win and overcome and be great. And y', all, that story is told over and over again, from Moana looking inside herself to, I mean, most recently, Stranger Things, the stories that we tell over and over again. There's something inherent inside of you that you just got to tap into. To overcome, to do great gets told over and over and over again. And that sometimes actually even funnels into some American churches, not even the majority, but some of them, certainly some with big platforms, and there are even some pastors, at least those who claim to be, that will parrot that lie. Over and over again. There's something you just gotta tap into. The power that's deep, that's wonderful within you. But that's not what the gospel teaches at all. It's not what the gospel teaches. The gospel teaches that if you look deep inside yourself, what you will discover is frailty, weakness, sin, brokenness, depravity. That's what's inherent in each of us. And that's what makes the gospel such good news. That's why that's wonderful that it's not in ourselves to arrive at greatness. It's on ourselves to overcome that. It comes from God working within us, the external power of God coming to work inside of us in powerful ways. May he strengthen by the power through his spirit in your inner being. This power comes from God.
In verse 17, he says, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through. Through faith. That Jesus Christ and faith in him brings the power of God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, to dwell richly in his people. And then he continues. That you, being rooted and grounded in love. Here we go. May have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and. And height and depth. And to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God, goodness. When I was a kid, we got to go to the Grand Canyon. My stepdad and I, we went. And I remember getting out of the car, walking through this clearing and seeing the Grand Canyon and having a very normal experience that many people have when they see the Grand Canyon. You just feel small. Now, the reasons that you feel small, because the Grand Canyon is massive. The Grand Canyon is 277 miles long. It is 4 to 18 miles wide. various points. It is over a mile deep. Totals at 1,904 square miles. You could take the entire state of Rhode island and put it in the Grand Canyon. I want to help you picture this for a moment. You may not find this helpful. I found this helpful and I'm talking. So theoretically, if you filled up the Grand Canyon with water, okay, it would take 4.17 quadrillion liters of water to fill the Grand Canyon. Now, if you're like me and you failed math as a kid, you might ask, what's a quadrillion? Had that same question. Quadrillion is 1 million billions, right? Take a billion. Now you have a million of those billions. And now you have a quadrillion four of them. That's how many liters of water it takes to fill the Grand Canyon. Now stay with Me further, the average adult human being, the capacity and the adult human being is about 42 liters. So if you were to take a human and fill it up with water. 42 liters. Okay. I in the eighth grade, well after my second eighth grade because I failed math. Stay with me. After my second eighth grade when I was there witnessing how big the Grand Canyon was, I was very small, very had not broken £100 yet. So half an adult human being. So think 20 liters capacity human being beholding 4.17 quadrillion capacity Grand Canyon. That's why I felt small. That's why anyone feels small. You might be. That's the most crazy confusing way to explain how to behold the Grand Canyon. I could keep going. I could tell you that if you took all the people in the world and put them in the Grand Canyon you wouldn't come close to filling it up. But it takes 60 to 70 trillion trillion human beings to fill up the Grand Canyon. I could do this with all kinds of things. With AI, I can do jello, I can do VW beetles, I can go all day pounds of sand. And every time I try to explain to you how big the Grand Canyon is by our understanding, you still can't grasp it because you can't understand 4.17 quadrillion liters of Wallers. Even if I switch it to gallons, which would be more helpful, I couldn't understand that. 67 trillion people. There's no quite way we could possibly picture and understand how big the Grand Canyon is. And when we in ourselves try to understand the bigness of the God who made that Grand Canyon, who holds that in the palm of his hand like it's nothing, the scale of comparison doesn't work. To try to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth of and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. It's not an 8th grade kid trying to stack up against the Grand Canyon. We don't have categories for that. The discrepancy between us and the size and the majesty and the wonder and the glory and the weight of glory of who our God is, is infinite. Yet God and his graciousness, this is what he does. Knowing that we and ourselves have no ability to begin to comprehend how great and how wide and how wonderful the love of his love of God. Him understanding this, He Himself dwells in us. He goes to work in our inner being to strengthen us, to empower us so that we can begin to understand the infinite capacity of love. That God has for us. That's. I mean, that's more than having your first child and having this love grow and understanding of what really love is, it's much, much, much, much, much bigger than that. When God goes to work in us to give us eyes to see and understand just the beginning of how great his love is. That's why, y'. All. I don't. When people who don't believe in Jesus and are skeptical when they take shots at the character of God. Your God is loving. Let me tell you how your God's not loving. Your God is not righteous. Not just. Let me tell you why your God isn't just. This is why. I don't. I don't get all offended. I'm not. Of course you would not begin to. How possibly could you begin to understand the depths and the riches of the love of God if He's not working in you to help you understand that in the first place? You have no capacity to understand how great he is. You have capacity to understand his great love. You have no capacity to understand his justice. You have no capacity to understand the riches of his glory and his majesty and his wonder and his all. So of course you would not get this. But when the Spirit goes to work in us and begins to open up our eyes to see and we. We begin to. To start to grasp how. How grotesque our sin is and how wretched our rebellion is against God and how we just joyfully choose sin over him repeatedly, over and over and over and over and over and over again to the point of ad nauseam. When we begin to understand with new spiritual eyes to understand how much our sin is heinous against a holy and perfect God who made us. Once we start to understand that, we can begin to partially understand how rich his love is that he would not injustice bring down his full wrath upon us. But he would send His Son to be crushed for us. He would send His Son to be crucified for us. He would send His Son to take the place that we deserve in judgment. And the more you stare at the cross by the power of the Holy Spirit working in us, you begin to see how deep his love is. You cannot discover God without Him first working in you. You cannot know him without him first working in you. You cannot understand his glory, his goodness, or any aspect. And especially you cannot understand his love without him first working in us. We need God to work in us. That's why Paul's praying this. That's why he's praying this over them, because they're not going to reason their way to this. They're not going to logic their way to this. No, they need God. He's praying. May God work in your inner being to see this and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.
And here's the sandwich, y'. All. Here's where it all comes in. That you may be filled with all the fullness of God. It all leads into that. He's praying you don't have it in you, but may God work in you, strengthen you, work in your inner being, so you might understand the depths of. Of the love of God, that the fullness of God may dwell in you. He's praying the fullness of God may dwell in you. Which begs the question, what is that? What is the fullness of God? I can both tell you what that is and can also admit I don't fully understand what that means. I can tell you biblically what that means. Biblically, it means that God dwells in you and his glorious attributes begin to work through you in mighty wonderful ways that display who he is. That's what that means. But how to fully understand that? I don't know. I don't know how you pictured that. I mean, you can tap a 4.17 quadrillion liter water tank and take your eighth grader and say, get to drinking, but I don't. So how do. How do you understand the fullness of God? And as I thought through this, the best way that my finite mind could try to picture this is that if you have a light bulb on a dimmer switch that you can slowly turn up, which I do in my. In my dining room, I've got this dimmer switch and turn it on, and I still have the Edison bulbs that haven't got out of stock yet. And you can turn it up a little bit and then you'll see the. The inner components of the light begin to light up. Light bulb begin to light up. But if you have a powerful enough light switch and enough light source, the more that you turn up that switch, the less you're going to see of the components of that light bulb. And eventually, if you turn up a light bulb to its maximum capacity, that you're not going to be able to see anything but light itself, you're not going to be able to see the inner workings of this at all, that the only observable substance will be light. And the best I can picture of what the fullness of God is is that God and His glory and the perfection of his attributes dwell so richly in his people that the only observable reality is God himself. And that's a beautiful thing to pray for that when people see you, the only observable reality that shines through you is the fullness of God. And that is a glorious thing to pray for. As he prays this on behalf of this Ephesian church. And you can't reason your way to that reality. You can't discover that our only hope is praying for it is praying for God to work in us in mighty wonderful ways. That at the fullness of God, God and all of his glory and his bright shining love working in us would just be the only observable thing about you.
So that reality makes this final part of the prayer that we're about to read so beautiful. Because that's true now.
To him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think according to the power at work within us to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen, man. The end of this prayer is an opportunity to dream, to dream a bit. Any all ever dream about winning the lottery? I know a Baptist would never do that. I think most of you have. I've dreamed about it and all the silly material things that you could purchase if I won the lottery. Now let's just disclaimer. I don't buy lottery tickets because I'm a Baptist. I really don't. Let's put that aside. If I won the lottery right now, there's no limit on money. There are some material things that my heart would go after. No doubt. Probably not the same as you, but I would try to find. There are some big land tracks between like Cayce Lexington. So if you took Cayce Lexington, Red Bank. There's an area right there where there's still some big old land tracks. It's getting developed, but not all. And I scoop up one of those land tracks, 100 acres. And then I put a giant fence, we're talking like 20 foot fence all the way around it. And then I'd stock it with as many deer as possible. Just load it up. It'd be a reserve. I wouldn't be selfish. I'd invite some of you. Some of you that don't shoot things you shouldn't shoot. You know who I'm talking about. Some of you know how I'm talking about. This isn't pointing anybody specifically. It just annoys me when people shoot smaller bucks. But that's not the point of this dream. If I I would. I would get this big land track and then I build pretty much the same size house I have now, a little nicer and there'd be a pond because my son has gotten into fishing. We stock it with fish and we just invite people to this to be. So we just have people coming over enjoying it. And I'm sure you've done some version of that, probably different. I don't think your lottery dreams are based in that area of town. But we've done this if we're honest, many of us. And what makes some of those dreams about things that do not matter at all, that have no really tangible, eternal significance, the reason you could do that is because money is the limit, right? That's the point of those lottery dreams, is that money is the limit. And if you didn't have money, here are the things you could really do. But it's all about things that don't matter. It's all about things that don't last. It's all about things that will be here and gone.
When is the last time we took that type of creativity and dreaming about things that do matter, things that have eternal significance, that if there were no limits and God was at work in us in mighty wonderful ways, beginning to help us comprehend the limitless love of God and the fullness of him dwelling in us in rich and powerful ways. If that's true, then man, what are the things that we could be dreaming about that we could pray for now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think? And I want you to dream for a bit about things that actually have significance. If God and His infinite power is at work within us, what are the things that we should be praying for, things we should be dreaming about? I want to give you some categories. Last week we talked about holiness. We talked about. We read a prayer of sanctification, of us becoming more like Christ by repenting of sin and obeying him. And the hope is, is that you didn't just hear that, but you responded to be a doer of the word. And this week at group, you began to talk about sin and not in shallow ways, but in real ways. That's my hope. And if you haven't done it yet, please do. But what if in this past week you started to take sin really seriously and then leaving today, you started to pray big prayers of just like God, this area of my life that I so deeply want you to change, this sin that just keeps plaguing me, God, would you so remove its Influence in my life that a year from now, just walking with you and all of a sudden temptation comes and I'm like, neo from the Matrix, just. And you're just. No, it's just an annoyance. I'm just. Would you work so powerfully within me that I wouldn't feel the destructive influence of the sin? I just have so much fullness of you dwelling within me. That's a thing to pray for.
Let's talk about reconciliation as a category. Some of you have relationships with people that have been marred by the effects of sin. And maybe you're not talking to them anymore. Maybe there is relational weirdness. And it just. Every time you see them, it just. You. Every time you see something online, you just. What if you started praying in a way to our limitless God that he would work in a mighty way in you and in them, so that when you saw them, all you felt was actually love, the love of God. That brightness just shines through you in a way. It's like I. I just love that person so much because he can. He can work in mighty ways.
Give you a different category, personal evangelism. Some of y' all have that lost coworker or that friend that you've been building with for quite some time. What if you began to pray with dream and imagination? God? Would you. Would you use me to declare the gospel of Jesus Christ to this person? Would you save them? And what if God, in a few months, orchestrated you and her? Or you and him standing right in front of me in a pool baptizing them, celebrating that Jesus saved them, and then you disciple them? You say, come, follow me as I follow Christ. Here's how you study the Word. Here's how you pray. Here's how you live in community. Follow me as I follow Christ. And then in a few years, they're actually a group leader. Because you prayed for boldness and zeal, the death of apathy and self interest, and God worked in you and you declared the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Give you another category about planting a church. It's about time we did that. It's about time we planted a church. What if 50 of you weren't in this room a few years from now? What if you, because God, working in your inner being, gave you faith to take a step of obedience and go and take the gospel somewhere else? I'll give you one couple more categories. What if some of you considered the call to ministry, serving the local church? What if some of you prayed some dangerous prayers and God began to work in your inner being in wonderful, mighty ways. And you said, I, I'll make less money. I'll serve the church, I'll be obedient. And for, for the men in this room, some of you, that means considering the call to be a pastor and, and aspiring to the office of overseer and desiring that noble task 1 Timothy 3:1, in a way that you would give your life away to loving and shepherding and leading and preaching God's people. And I'll give you one last category to dream on. What if some of you became international missionaries, you began to pray those kind of dangerous prayers that when you think about it, you want to put it to the side because you don't want to go there. But God began to work in you and broke your heart for a people group that doesn't know the gospel, for a country that needs solid theological enrichment in the local churches. And you, in a few years packed up your bags and sold everything and you left. And you're obedient to the call to go, to make disciples of all the nations. Those are the things worth dreaming about and those are the things worth praying for.
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, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen, y'. All. He's able. He's able to do more than we could ever dream or imagine. Why aren't we praying? The type of dangerous, wonderful, glorious Christ exalting prayers that make us uncomfortable. We have access to limitless power to go to work in us, to do unimaginable work that he set apart for us. And the question is, is what are we waiting for? I think some of us are holding back. I think even as we think in those type of categories for a moment, there's already the counter that said, I just, I don't know, I'm not ready. I don't know if I'm ready for that yet. That seems scary. What if I fail? What if it doesn't work? What if? What if? What if? What if? And I want to tell you, you let God be the limit on what he's going to do in you and through you and get out of the way. We pray and we dream like this because of where this ultimately ends. Because to him belongs all glory and the church and in Jesus Christ throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. This ends in doxology. This ends in glorious praise to Him. Did we get to experience him in indescribable ways that we would get to be used by him to do unimaginable things to Him. Be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
Brothers and sisters, God wants to strengthen us, to help us comprehend the depths of his love in profound, wonderful ways. And as we experience his love in infinite, wonderful ways, we'd be obedient to the things that he calls us to with no limit style Dreaming it's time for us to pray for the fullness of God to dwell in us. It's time to start praying bold, audacious, big dream prayers. And that's what we're going to do for the next few minutes. Daniel's going to come up here and he's just going to play and we're going to sit and we're going to pray and we're going to pray for two things. We're first going to pray for God and His fullness to dwell in us that would shine so brightly that when people see us, they see Christ. And the second thing we're going to pray for is going to pray for God to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think. And we get to dream a little bit and we get to be dangerous a little bit. And we get to be silent for a little bit. And we get to let the Lord go to work in our hearts. So that's what we're going to do. For a few minutes we're going to sit in silence and then I will close this in prayer. But let me, let me make this clear. Some of you need to encounter, maybe for the first time, this power of God. Some of you. This won't make sense until God first begins a work in you, which means some of you need to place your full faith in Jesus that you've been putting faith in other things yourself. And now is the time for you to actually respond to the lordship of God so that he might begin to dwell in you fully. And I would encourage you to do that as well. But we're going to sit for a few minutes. Maybe you need to get a posture of prayer. Maybe you need to be open handed a little bit. Maybe you need to get on your knees. We don't have a traditional altar, but you might need to come up here, you might need to stand up and walk out, but prepare yourself to be in a posture of prayer. And for a few minutes we're going to sit in silence and we're going to pray for the fullness of God to dwell richly in us in mighty ways. And then we're going to pray for God to do far more abundantly than we could ever ask or think. Let's pray.
Lord, we pray that we'd be filled with the fullness of you, God. May you work in our inner being that we might be begin to comprehend how profound and wonderful our love is and a world way that you would dwell so richly within us and shine so brightly through us. Oh lord, would you fill us, God, to you who are able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think. God, would you remove the limits that we place on you in our lives? Would you make us uncomfortable? Would you give us faith? God, we ask for faith to pray like this. May you work mightily in us to do the things that you desire for us. To you be glory and your church and our Savior Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
We're going to stand, we're going to praise our glorious God and we're going to worship.