Ephesians 2 The Prayer of Gods Fullness

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Questions About Prayer, the Heart, and Closeness to God

Second question, how is your prayer life? It can be a struggle, can't it? And then the third question is, how are you doing on the inside? How is your heart? And then the last question, would you like to be closer to your Heavenly Father?

And I'm just guessing that the fact that you're here this morning, that that's true of many of us, that we want to be closer to God. It says in Romans 8 .26, it says the Spirit helps in our weakness for we do not know what to pray for as we ought.

One of the ways that I believe that the Holy Spirit helps us to know what to pray for as we ought is that this incredible book is full of prayers. And so when the Father gives us prayers in here, what he's saying is he's saying, my child, I want you to ask me to do this, because we don't always know what to pray for, right?

And this book is full of beautiful prayers as far as God saying, pray this so that I can do this in your life, because one of the primary ways that God works in our lives is through prayer. And so if your prayer life is faltering, if your prayer life is almost non-existent, it really limits God as far as what he can do in your life, because he works in our lives through invitation, us inviting him to come and work in our hearts, if that makes sense.

So I just want to simply read this prayer from Ephesians 3. It's a prayer that I've been thinking on for a long time, and as I prayed about what I should share, knowing that I was going to have this opportunity, this is what God led me to.

So if you turn in your Bibles to Ephesians 3, verses 14 through 20. If you don't have a Bible, if you don't have it on your phone, and you would like to follow along, we would love to put a Bible in your hands.

Anybody need a copy of God's Word this morning? Yep. Anybody else? You are welcome to keep that book too, as well. We'd love for you to have your own copy of God's Word. So we're going to pick up the prayer in Ephesians 3, verses 14 through 21.

Follow along with me. For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and 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, 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 the length and the height and depth, 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 in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever.

Amen. That is a beautiful prayer right there. And I believe God put that in his word because he wants us to pray it. In this prayer there are three main prayer requests. Number one, fill my inner being with your power.

Strengthen me. Number two, fill my heart with your presence. Jesus, be at home in my heart. And number three, help me to comprehend and fill me with your love. And this morning, that's what I want to kind of dig into those three prayer requests.

What do they really mean? And how can these things be true in our life? And did you catch that at the end of verse 19, it says that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. I like the sounds of that.

Anybody else like the sound of that? To be filled with the fullness of God, the joy in the life of our creator. So with that, I'm just going to pray. And then the worship band is going to come up and lead us in a time of worship.

Okay, let's pray. Heavenly Father, just thank you so much for teaching us how to pray, for the privilege of coming to your throne of grace, for the new and living way through the shed blood of our Savior Jesus, that we can come boldly to you as your sons and daughters.

And you being the best dad ever, you want us to do that. Father, you long for us to spend time in your presence. You care about our worries and our concerns and our burdens and our heartaches, and you are the one who can help us with them.

And so I ask that you would, through the worship time and through us being together and through your word this morning, that you would teach us how to connect with you in deeper ways, Father, that each day we could seek you and grow closer and closer to you, Father.

We love you and thank you so much that we could be together. Thank you for everyone here. And I just pray that you would minister to each one of us this morning. We love you and we thank you. In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. Thank you, Dave and the band. So some of you might not be aware that a lot of the men are at a men's retreat. So I thought, wow, what a perfect Sunday to preach a message on how to live with a difficult man.

But I thought even more than that, ladies, you need prayer, right? Okay, that would be even better, the power of prayer. So go ahead and open your Bibles back up to Ephesians chapter 3. And we're going to look at this prayer.

But before we do that, I want to make a couple corrections. So if you were here two weeks ago, I had the privilege of sharing the word and I did a message on the Prince of Peace. And you know, I am a flawed man.

And when I get up here, there's so much I want to say with not enough time to say it. And it's easy to kind of start breezing through things. And sometimes you say things that you don't even plan on saying.

And then when you get done, you're like, oh, I hope I didn't say anything stupid or, you know, or I messed up on the word. Well, the first thing, the first correction, this just shows that I'm a flawed man.

I said that I received Christ when I was 20. And if you were doing the math, someone pointed out to me that I said that was 49 years ago. And he was like, boy, you look really good, Bill, for 69. So I was like, oh, no, no, I'm 59.

So it was 39 years ago. That's my first correction. The second correction. And, you know, I just read, I'm reading through Acts in my own personal reading. And I read about the Bereans and how noble they were.

Because when the apostles were sharing the message of Jesus, they went back to their word to see if those things were so. And so if I ever say anything that the word isn't saying, please have the freedom to come up and talk to me about that.

So I made a comment. I was teaching on the story of Jesus calming the storm. And I made the comment that I thought that when the disciples came to Jesus at that point, he had probably woken up because he would have been very wet.

I believe totally when the text says that he was asleep in the boat. That he fell asleep in that boat. And I took a little bit too much liberty in sharing kind of my little theory about being in a boat that's filling up with water in a storm that at some point he may have woken up and was just waiting for the disciples to come to him.

So I don't ever want to say something that the word of God doesn't say. I believe with all my heart that this is the inherent word of God. That this book is a treasure. That it is accurate from cover to cover.

And this is what I want to live my life by and base my faith on. So I apologize for coming across like I was trying to say that something contrary to what the story said. He very well could have been still sound asleep at that point.

The beautiful point is he calmed that storm, amen? And that he can calm the storms in our lives. I'd just like to pray and then we'll dive into this prayer. Holy Father, just please, without your spirit we cannot understand your word.

Father, our own mind will twist it or make it say something it's not saying. And we want to hear from you. We want your spirit to be our teacher. Just thank you for the treasure of your book. The treasure of your word.

Father, for giving us this prayer to teach us what you want to do in our lives. It's like you're saying, here's the check, come and cash it. And so I just pray that you would give us understanding as we look at this text this morning.

And that it could be a blessing in our lives as we pray this prayer. I ask this in Jesus name, amen? Amen. All right, so this beautiful prayer in Ephesians. And it's one of many, many prayers in the word of God.

Look at how it begins in verse 14. So Paul, who wrote this letter to the people who lived in Ephesus. So it's called the book of Ephesians. There were at this point many believers there in that city. And Paul writes this letter teaching them to grow in their faith.

And if you've never read Ephesians, I would really encourage you to do it. It's such a powerful book of the Bible. There's so many incredible truths there. And Paul begins by saying, for this reason I bow my knees before the Father.

So when you hear that for this reason, you have to ask, what's the reason, right? And you know, he's talking about bowing the knees. That should make us think about worship, right? That was a form of worship.

And many people will pray by bowing their knees. We're going to talk a little bit about that. The reason why he said for this reason is because of all the truths that he had already shared in this letter.

And I want to just look at a few of those reasons why Paul says, for this reason I bow my knees to the Father. So if you flip back to chapter 2 of Ephesians, let's look at a few of these reasons, okay?

So here we are, chapter 2, look at verses 4 and 5. But God, being rich in his mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

By grace you have been saved. For this reason, because of God's amazing love, and because of him being a mighty Savior and rescuing us from the darkness, from sin, from hell, Paul says, I bow my knees to the Father.

Look at verse 6. And he raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So we are one with Jesus as if we're seated with him in the heavenlies, and we will be with him forever.

And Paul says, for this reason I bow my knees to the Father. Look at verse 10 of the same chapter. For we are his workmanship. He's working in our lives. He's changing us. He's transforming us. Created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

For this reason, I bow my knees to the Father. Look at verse 13 of the same chapter. But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off, have been brought near by the blood of Christ. That Jesus shed his blood for us to set us free, to bring us forgiveness, to bring us into an intimate relationship with the Father.

Paul says, for this reason, I bow my knees to the Father. Look at verse 19. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.

Isn't that good? Members of God's household. We're his children. He's our heavenly Father. For this reason, I bow my knees to the Father. Verse 22. In him, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

He's like, I want to live in you. That's how close I want to be to you. And I'm working in you and I'm building you up. And Paul says, for this reason, I bow my knees to the Father. Well, those are just a few of many, many reasons why God should be worshiped.

We see the bowing of the knees as a posture of worship. And these truths should cause us to worship. This was a fitting response for a king. So back in the day when this was written, everybody understood that that's what you did when you were in the presence of a king.

You bowed. And in some cultures, if you didn't, you were in serious, serious trouble. One of the commentaries I looked as I was studying this was by John Phillips. And this is what he said, and I liked it.

So I just wrote it down and I'm going to read it to you. It says, according to court etiquette in Paul's day, when someone approached the throne, he bowed the knee. True, God is our Father. True, we are bidden to come boldly to him.

True, he loves us with an everlasting love. True, we have instant access to him day or night. True, no request is too great or too small to be brought to him. True, no earthly child in our culture goes down on his knees before his earthly Father.

But our Father is God. The scripture clearly teach that God should be approached with reverence and awe. Now, Paul isn't prescribing a posture of prayer here. He's just saying, this is the effect of these truths in my life, that it causes me to bow in worship before the Father.

And he got down on his knees and he worshiped. In Genesis 18, 22, we find Abraham standing and praying before the Lord. Solomon stood when he prayed to dedicate the temple in 1 Kings 8, 22. David sat before the Lord when he prayed about the future of his kingdom, 1 Chronicles 17, 16.

Jesus prayed lying prostrate on the ground in the garden of Gethsemane. And so you find people praying in all different positions. So it's not necessarily saying that for prayer to be effective, we have to get on our knees or close our eyes or fold our hands.

I do a lot of praying in my car as I'm driving. I can't do any of those things, but it's one of my favorite prayer places. I like to take walks and pray and I don't close my eyes as I'm doing that. I don't want to fall, you know.

But I'll walk down the street talking to God because He's ever present. And it's not, the position isn't important. But what is important is that we bow our hearts and our wills to Him. And what's also important is that we begin with worship.

One of my favorite prayers in the Bible is what we refer to as the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6, 9. That prayer has taught me so much about prayer and helped me in my own personal prayer life so much. And when you think of how that prayer starts, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name.

And it begins with worship, doesn't it? Prayer should begin with worship. It should begin with us thinking about who our Father is, who we're approaching, who we're coming to, whose presence we're coming into.

I like Hebrews 4, 16 where it says, Let us come with confidence to the throne of grace. And so I picture myself coming into that throne room before the King of the universe. And that helps me prepare my heart to come with reference to God.

It says in Psalm 95, 6 and 7, O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our maker, for He is our God and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. He says, come and let us bow down and worship.

God is to be worshiped. We are to have a reverence for who He is and we are to come with that reverence. But we are also blessed to be able to come as His children. So we don't come in fear and trembling, like God is going to be angry at us and strike us down because we messed up.

We come to the most loving, perfect, heavenly Father. We talked about the posture of prayer. And now I want you to see the reality of prayer back in Ephesians 3, verse 14. Look at this scripture again.

He says, for this reason I bow my knees before the Father. And this word before is a beautiful word because it literally means face to face. That's what this word literally means here in the original language.

It's the word for being in the very direct presence of God. And so Paul brings out the reality. When you pray, you are face to face with God. It brings you into the very presence of the Father. This speaks of a very intimate relationship.

Sadly, growing up, I wasn't very close to my earthly father. And I thank God that before he passed at the age of 80, that my dad and I became friends. And we had a close relationship in the last four or five years before he passed away.

And part of that was him coming to Christ after many, many years of pushing me away. But when you think of what a parent-child relationship should be, it should be one of the closest relationships, right?

That's what it's meant to be, a parent and a child. And when you think of what would it be like to have the perfect parent? Now, kids, I don't know. Maybe you're like, that doesn't sound too good because they'd always be on me, you know.

No, no. I mean like the most loving, caring, forgiving, patient parent ever, right? And that's what you have in our Heavenly Father. You have the very best dad ever. In fact, all parenthood comes from him.

He designed us to be in family. So this speaks of a very intimate relationship. And this was radical when Jesus introduced it in the Lord's Prayer. In fact, at times they wanted to stone Jesus because he kept referring to God as his personal father.

Back in Old Testament times, they had this fear of God, of approaching him because we all know we're unworthy. But they didn't understand the love of God. We have a perspective now, looking back at the cross and what he has done.

And he is called the perfect father. And so when they asked Jesus, teach us to pray. He said, pray our father in heaven. And I just picture the disciples jaws dropping when he said that. Like, we can address God that way?

Because they were afraid to say the very name of God. And so we're not even sure pronounced if it was Yahweh or Jehovah or Jehovah. Or because they were afraid to say the sacred name of God. And then Jesus comes up, just call him father.

Like, that's intimate. That's an intimate, close relationship. It's supposed to be. And sadly, in our fallen world, it isn't always the case, is it? But God is the perfect father. Now, sometimes, you know, when I'm studying and I read something and I just.

Someone else will say it so well that I just have to read what they said about it. OK, and that this is from John MacArthur speaking about this, this scripture and this father child relationship. He says this, because God is our heavenly father, we do not come to him in fear and trembling, afraid that he will rebuff us or be indifferent.

We do not come to appease him as the pagans do their deity. We come to a tender, loving, concerned, compassionate, accepting father. A loving human father always accepts the advances of his children, even when they have been disappointed, disobedient or ungrateful.

How much more does our heavenly father accept his children, regardless of what they have done or not done? Paul approaches the father with boldness and confidence, knowing that he is more willing for his children to come to him than they ever are of coming to him.

He knows that God has been waiting all the while with the father's heart of love and anticipation. Wow, you think of the creator of the universe longing for you to come to him, longing for you to take time out of your day and to set yourself apart from the busyness and the noise and come into his presence with your heart and your life and to have a heart-to-heart talk with your father, who loves you with a perfect love.

You can be totally honest with this father. I tell him every one of my struggles, every one of my fears and anxieties, and he knows them all anyway. Things that I would be embarrassed to tell other people about, I talk to him about it because he loves me and he is the one who can transform me.

I can't change these things on my own. It's got to be his power in me. It's the father meeting the needs of his children. And he knows what our needs are. He knows how much we struggle. And he loves us and he can help us through those struggles.

He is a generous father with unlimited resources. Look at verse 16, how it's put in verse 16. Pick it back up, we'll let it flow. Verse 14, For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner being.

According to the riches of his glory. Not out of his riches, there's a difference. So if a billionaire gives you 50 dollars, he's giving you out of his riches. Not much of a sacrifice, right? Billionaire gives you 50 bucks, he's giving you out of his riches.

But if he gives you a million dollars, he's giving you according to his riches. See what I'm saying? You know, if I'm a millionaire and my charitable giving equals, you know, a thousand dollars a year, I'm not being very generous.

I'm not giving according to my riches, am I? What this is trying to help us see is that God is a generous father. Look at verse 20, how it's put. Not to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power that works within us.

It says in James that God gives generously without reproach. And he knows our needs. He has the resources. And we need to learn to bring him our physical needs, our material needs, our emotional needs, our spiritual needs.

He is ready and willing to meet these needs. And in his word, he often shows us what our true needs are. You know, we tend to think so much in the physical, material realm. But we have deep needs of the soul in our emotional being.

This prayer shows us the need for his strength, number one. Number two, the need for his abiding presence in our hearts. And number three, the need for his love. The first prayer request I want to look at here is the prayer for strength.

And again, that's in verse 16. I just read it. But he's saying that he, God, may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being. Now, I want to look at these two words, strengthened and power.

And, you know, I tell every time, you know, I try to share the meaning of a Greek word. I just have a good tool that helps me. And I'm sure that even when I try to pronounce these words, I butcher them.

Although I have this computer program that tells me what the Greek word is. And I push up, I click on a little microphone, and it says the Greek word for me or the Hebrew word. I love that. So you can get some really, really cool programs for your computer.

But this word strengthened is krataio, so I'm sure I didn't say it right. But it means to empower. It means to increase in strength, to be strengthened, to be made strong. And I want to show you how this word is used.

So keep your finger here in Ephesians because we're going to flip back. But turn with me to Luke chapter 1 verse 80. And we'll find this exact Greek word. Luke chapter 1 verse 80. This is talking about Jesus and him growing up.

Luke chapter 1 verse 80. And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness. Oh, I'm sorry. I said this was of Jesus. See, there I go. Flawed, right? This is talking about John the Baptist, all right?

And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel. This word strong here, it's the same word. And how does it say he was made strong?

Strong in the what? Spirit. You know, we put so much focus on physical health and looks, which you should, you know, try to live a healthy life and take care of your body, okay? But what's more important?

The body or the spirit, the inner being or the outer shell? It's the inner being, right? And this talks about being made strong in the spirit. In other words, John the Baptist grew in faith. He grew in his relationship with God.

He grew in his connection with God. He became a mighty prophet of God because God was strengthening him and causing him to grow in the spirit. This is our same word here. The second word is the word power, dunamai.

In this word power, we're back in Ephesians chapter 3 verse 16, that he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit. This word means to be able or possible, has the idea of might and of power and of ability.

And so what this word speaks of is enablement. In other words, the Holy Spirit, when I came to Christ, my life was a wreck. I was addicted to alcohol. I was addicted to marijuana. I was addicted to drugs.

My life was a wreck. And Jesus came in. And somehow I thought that I would have to conquer these demons in my own strength. And I quickly learned that I could not do it. But through his power, it wasn't difficult.

I had to learn to tap in his power. And the primary way we do that is through prayer, by asking him for strength. So I learned when that temptation came. Father, help me to say no. Give me the strength to say no, to turn away from this.

And then it wasn't difficult. But without that, it was so difficult. I think of a lamp that's not plugged in. You can turn the switch and it doesn't shine, right? You have to plug it in to the power source, right?

God is the power source, the electricity, okay? So you plug it into the power source, which goes all the way back to the power plant, right? Okay, all through all those wires and everything. And it comes all the way in your house.

It's plugged into the power source. The current that makes the light shine is what? It's the electricity, right? Coming from the power source. And I think of the Holy Spirit as the electricity. Ephesians 5, 18, it says, don't be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit.

This is something God wants to do in our lives. He wants us to learn to live and to walk in the Spirit. When you look at Galatians chapter 5, it talks about walking in the Spirit and you will not follow the lust of the flesh.

And so the Spirit, so we plug into the power source. God, I can't do this on my own. I need your strength. I need your power. And the Holy Spirit is the channel. A good prayer to pray is, Father, fill me with your Holy Spirit.

Jesus said in Luke chapter 11, He said, how much more will your Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? Now as children of God, we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. We are a temple of the Holy Spirit.

But are we allowing the Spirit to fill our heart and mind and to lead and guide us? Are we seeking that leading? It's very important that we do. Flip over with me to Acts chapter 1, verse 8. It talks about the Holy Spirit.

This is a familiar verse. We think of it in terms of being a witness for Jesus. But in Acts chapter 1, verse 8, it says this. Jesus said this, But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.

And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all of Judea and Samaria to the end of the earth. So He said that His Spirit would bring a new strength, a new ability to them. And this word for power here is dunamis.

And it's the word that we get our English word dynamite from. And it means a force, especially miraculous power, ability, wonderful work. That's how it's translated. It's translated miracle. And again, it's just this power of the Holy Spirit.

I think of Philippians 4, verse 13, a verse that has helped me a lot through the years. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Again, it's that power. He's the power source. It's not like, you know, I thought somehow you would pray for strength in the morning and zap.

God strikes you with strength and then you're like spiritually strong through the rest of the day. I had it all wrong. He is the power source and I have to be plugged into Him. Without that, I'm just going in my own strength, in my own ability.

So we're praying for strength and power in our inner being, that He would help us to become stronger in the Spirit. The second prayer request is a prayer for His indwelling presence. And we find that back in Ephesians chapter 3, verse 17.

I love this verse. So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. This is a prayer request. Lord Jesus, dwell in my heart. Dwell in me that Jesus would be at home in us. It's a prayer for friendship with Jesus.

It's a prayer that Jesus would abide in our hearts. Paul, in 2 Corinthians 13, verse 50, he had to remind the Corinthian believers of this. He said, or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?

Believers, don't you realize that Jesus lives in you? They didn't realize it. They were so full of bickering and they were so focused on the outer, in the flesh. That they, in the things of the world, that they had crowded Jesus out of their hearts.

Even though He was still in their life, He was not dwelling in their hearts. We can easily crowd Him out of our hearts. One moment we like, Lord, I love you. And the next minute we're like, you know, you know how it is.

I don't have to try to explain that. But this word in the Greek, it means to be at home in. So I don't know if you've ever gone to somebody's home, maybe to stay. Maybe a relative for a night or two or a week.

And you never felt at home. You never felt welcome there. You felt like an inconvenience. And you know what I'm talking about, right? Most of us have experienced that being in people's homes. That we just didn't feel at home there.

Well, sadly, sometimes Jesus doesn't feel at home in our hearts, right? Because what are we allowing into those hearts? As I was studying this scripture about Christ being at home in our hearts, I remembered this little booklet called, My Heart, Christ's Home.

And this was written many, many years ago in 1951, before I was even born. So it's old. Anybody ever read this before? My Heart, Christ's Home? It talks about this verse of Ephesians 3, 17. That Jesus may dwell in your hearts.

Be at home in your hearts. And he kind of goes through the living room and the study. And it's really worth reading if you've never read it. So I went online and navigators had it so that you could print it off.

And so what I did is, I made a bunch of copies. And they're sitting out on the welcome table, okay? So please, on your way out, feel free to grab one and check this out. It really addresses this well, as far as Jesus dwelling in our hearts.

I like how Kenneth Wiest, in his Greek word studies, translates this verse. And he translates it this way. That Christ might finally settle down and feel completely at home in your hearts through faith.

That Christ would be not just a welcome guest, but dwelling in our heart of hearts. The Amplified Version puts it this way. May Christ, through your faith, actually dwell, settle down, abide, make his permanent home in your hearts.

Revelation 3 .20, Jesus talking to the church. He said, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone opens the door, I will come in and dine with them and he with me. And he's talking about our hearts.

Sometimes we put him on the outside and he says, Lo, I am with you always. And so a prayer that I pray every day is, Lord, dwell in my heart. I pray, Father, create in me a clean and pure heart. I come before him with my troubled heart or my stained heart.

And I make confession and I ask his forgiveness. And I ask him, Father, help me to be one with you. Jesus, dwell in me. It's us abiding in him. And Jesus dwelling in our hearts. It's coming to him with your heart and saying, Lord, I want you to dwell in my heart.

Please be at home in my heart. And then the third prayer request is the prayer for God's love. And it's these three prayer requests that lead us into the fullness of God. Look at the first part of this prayer in verse 17.

It says, So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love. So this word rooted, if you ever garden or you're going to transplant flowers, if you put them in the wrong kind of soil, they're not going to live.

They're not going to do well, right? Soil is very important. It won't grow unless it's rooted in the proper soil. God's love is the soil in which our relationship with him will grow. We don't grow closer to God by works.

And a lot of people think that's the way to get close to God. If I just do good enough, if I just keep all his commands, if I serve him enough, then I'll grow and I'll get close to him. Now, all those things are good.