Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.littlelogchurch.com/sermons/100723/how-to-pray-for-power/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] Good morning. It's good to be with you this morning. As we come to our study in Ephesians, we come to the second part of chapter 3.

[0:17] ! If you'll take out your Bibles and turn with me to Ephesians chapter 3. We're going to be looking at verses 14 to 17, but we're going to read 14 through 21.

[0:30] In the Pew Bible, if you don't have a Bible, it's page 977. 977. So you can follow along as we read.

[0:44] This is what we're coming to here in Ephesians. Remember the first three chapters of Ephesians, Paul is talking about what God has done for us. And then when we come to chapter 4 through 6, it will be about how we live for Him.

[1:00] Right? What God has done for us and then how we walk in a manner worthy of that. Our practice, our application of that in chapters 4, 5, and 6. But remember when we were in chapter 1, the second half of chapter 1 was a prayer.

[1:14] Right? He talked about in chapter 1 all the blessings of God, how we're blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. And then he began to enumerate all those blessings.

[1:24] And then beginning in the second half of chapter 1, he prayed. He gives a prayer that we might understand, that we might come to grasp these things.

[1:36] Okay? So he's praying that we'll grasp it. And then in chapter 2, he talks about our salvation. And then he talks about God's creation of the church. And then in chapter 3 now, he's going to give a second prayer at the end of chapter 3 that we could, not that we understand, but that we can employ the things we learn now in chapter 2.

[2:01] So he's praying that we would have the power to do these things. I never title sermons, How To.

[2:14] But then you look at the sermon outline, it says How To. How to pray for power. I'd never do that. Because I don't believe in kind of the how to, making the Bible simply a matter of how to do this and how to do that and how to do this.

[2:29] But it seemed particularly applicable this time. So even though I say I never do it, okay, here's the exception. How to pray for power, because that's exactly what Paul's doing.

[2:41] And I want us to pay attention to, as we've learned in Ephesians, how Paul is a detailed person. He is precise and definitive. And when he prays for power, he doesn't just say, Lord, give us power.

[2:56] We'll notice there's six elements to his prayer for power. So I want us to notice those things. And therefore, how to pray for power. How Paul prays for power.

[3:09] And then he gives, and he leaves it as an application for us. So, okay. With all that, we come to chapter 3, verse 14. So if you're able, please stand as I read the Word of God here from Ephesians chapter 3.

[3:24] Beginning verse 14. Paul writes, For this reason, For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.

[3:42] That, here's his prayer. That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power through his spirit in the inner man.

[3:59] That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And, secondly, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth.

[4:17] And to know, to know the love of Christ, which surpasses none. That you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

[4:32] Now to him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, beyond all that we ask or think. According to the power that works within us.

[4:43] To him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. So reads the word.

[4:54] Let us pray. Father, grant us in these moments to comprehend Paul's prayer. Help us to see how he prays and what he prays. And give us insight into those things we pray in Christ's name.

[5:07] Amen. Please be seated. So, do we have folks here that know about cars and trucks and automobiles?

[5:20] A little bit. A little bit. I know Ron knows. I know James knows. I know how to brake them. I know Roger knows about cars. I know how to brake them, too. So, we can know all about a car.

[5:31] Okay? You can be an expert about cars. You can know what kind of engine it is. How the engine works. You can know the transmission. How the transmission works. How the gears work together.

[5:42] You can know about the steering. About the brakes. About the shifter. If you shift. The signals. Right? Signals. If they work or not. And you can know about maintenance of a car.

[5:53] You can know all about a car. Yet, if you don't have a key, you'll never go anywhere. I once had the privilege to sit in a Ferrari.

[6:08] And I don't mean just any Ferrari. This was a Ferrari that had a 12-cylinder. V12. It had six carburetors. So, one carburetor for every two valves.

[6:23] Six pipes coming out the back. Six. Which is what's called by Italian terms. A tuned ignition. A tuned exhaust. Two.

[6:35] One for every two cylinders. One for every two hours. This baby had power. How do I know that? Well, I don't know it because I didn't get out.

[6:46] I didn't have a key. So, I know all about this car. And yet, without the key, I didn't go anywhere with it. But I had a friend who did.

[6:58] See, the owner of this Ferrari was one of my dad's very close friends. And, in fact, I've named after him, Bill. Although my dad likes to tease that I was named after the doctor Bill and the hospital Bill and, you know, all the bills that he got when I was born.

[7:13] I was named after this man, Bill Doyle, who owned this Ferrari. By the way, he had no Ferrari, and in his garage, the Ferrari said, too fast. And then he had a 1924 Model T that said, too slow, sitting by side by side.

[7:27] And Dylan and I rode in that Model T in our wedding. So, but I had a friend who drove this Ferrari because this man brought the Ferrari to the Bible study at my friend's house.

[7:40] And parked it in the driveway and said, you watch this car while the Bible study is going on. Don't let anybody near it. And so afterwards, he gave him, I said, you want to take it for a drive? And my buddy said, of course I do.

[7:53] So he got out, and he's going up Redwood Road, which is a hill. And he's in second gear, and he noticed that he's doing 90 miles an hour in second gear.

[8:05] And Bill, the owner, turns to him and says, you can shift now. You know, you're 90. It had three more gears. I don't know what the thing topped out at.

[8:18] But this is, gosh, I don't know what year it was. 1970? 1970 Ferrari? They don't make them like that anymore.

[8:30] It had a lot of power. So that's the thing, though. I sat in that seat. I had all that power. I had no key. I had nowhere to go with it. Great power. In the same way, you can know all about the Bible.

[8:43] You can know what it teaches. You can even be an instructor of the Bible. You can know what the warnings are, the promises are. You can have your favorite verse. You can even be able to defend the Bible.

[8:53] And yet, you can know all of that about the Bible and not live by it and never apply it. Possible to know all about God and not know Him.

[9:08] Same goes with how we apply our faith. How do we apply our faith? We walk by faith, right? What does that mean? Well, some try to apply their faith by doing the best they can in their own strength.

[9:26] And what that leads to is despair. They can make promises. They can make renewals. They can make covenants. Say, I'm going to do better. I'm going to do better. I'm going to do better. And then they keep failing because they try to do it in their own strength.

[9:40] Others say, well, you just have to give up. You need to be passive. You need to let go and let God. Just let God do it. Okay, how's that working? And then the third option is to actually live by faith.

[9:55] By an active, intentional, deliberate, activated faith. Because we can believe, but if we don't apply our faith, we don't activate our faith, that means nothing.

[10:08] That's why James says, what's your faith without works? It's dead. It's nothing. Right? So activating faith. Well, we're in a section in Ephesians that tells us, explains to us, exemplifies for us how to activate our faith.

[10:26] Faith is activated by prayer. I'm absolutely convinced of this. It's not activated by our best intentions. It's not activated by our willpower.

[10:39] It is activated only by prayer. Because what is our faith in? Our faith is in the Lord Jesus Christ and for him working through us.

[10:50] That's where our faith is. Not our faith is not in me doing better. It's not self-reliance. It's God-reliance. In fact, it's self-distrust. Not leaning on my own understanding, right?

[11:02] So here we go. So Paul begins in verse 14. He says, for this reason. What reason? What's the reason he's going to pray?

[11:14] It's the same phrase. If you look back at chapter 3, verse 1, he starts the same way. For this reason, I, Paul. And then remember, he interrupts.

[11:27] Most scholars believe he meant to pray there in verse 1. But another thought enters his mind and he wants to share that. And so he talks about his stewardship of the mystery of the Christ.

[11:38] So in chapter 3, verses 1 through 13, he's talking about that. And what's the application of that mystery of the Christ? So now in verse 14, he gets back to it.

[11:49] Now, for this reason. So what reason does he bow his knees before the Father? Well, we have to go back to the end of chapter 2. In fact, you have to go back to the beginning of chapter 2.

[12:03] This prayer now, this second prayer, Paul, is the application of what he taught in chapter 2. The first 10 verses in chapter 2 are about salvation.

[12:14] What we're saved from, what we're saved to. The next verses from verse 11 through 22 are about God's creation of the church, right? How he broke down the barrier wall so that he could bring Jews and Gentiles together in Christ and bring them all the way to the Holy of Holies.

[12:33] Bring them right to the very presence of God without any sacrifices, without any, without any, well, excuse me, without, except for one sacrifice, without any man sacrifices to get to the Father and without any priests.

[12:47] But because of Christ's death, God removed the barrier wall. And he removed the veil. Remember, the veil of the temple was torn so that we could go right into the presence of God.

[12:57] So now Paul is praying the application of those truths about salvation and what we're saved to. We're saved to what God calls a family, a building, a body of Christ.

[13:12] And God works through the church. He works through Christians, but specifically Christians as a body of believers. And so he prays.

[13:23] What is prayer? What is prayer? Why do we pray? We pray to get things. Well, yeah, of course, we're needy.

[13:35] But Jesus says, remember, when you when you pray, you don't need to give God a lot of information because he already knows what you need before he asks. Right. So there's that whole, you know, OK, I'm not telling him what I need.

[13:48] He already knows what I need. So if he already knows what I need, why do I pray? Why? Because God wants us to approach him. He wants the relationship with us. He wants us to trust him.

[13:58] He wants us to tell him everything. And so that's what prayer is. It's our helpless cry. I remember John Piper once given the illustration of walking down the street and seeing in the shop store a sign.

[14:15] Help needed. Right. Help needed. And he thought about that in relation to God. God doesn't put out a help needed sign. God does not need our help.

[14:27] He didn't need our help the first seven days of creation, did he? He didn't need our help when he sent you. He didn't need. He never needs our help.

[14:39] But he welcomes us to come to walk with him and to be used by him. Right. It's more. It's the other way around. We're the ones with the sign to God saying help needed.

[14:52] And that's what prayer is, too. We're saying, Lord, I need your help again. It's another day. And I am weak. So praying for power.

[15:05] So in this in these verses, we're just looking at verses 14 through through the first half of 17 today. Two things, two subjects come out here for us.

[15:19] One in verses 14, 15, the particulars of prayer. So he talks about how do we pray and to whom do we pray and why do we pray that way?

[15:32] Right. So the particulars of prayer. And then secondly, beginning in verse 16 and 17, he brings the first request. And so here. So the second subject is the prayer for power.

[15:43] So he will show us how to pray for power there. But let's look first in verses 14, 15 at the particulars of prayer. What is involved in prayer? Note in verse 14, he begins for this reason.

[15:58] I bow my knees before the father. So first of all, he mentions his posture, which is unusual. He doesn't usually didn't do that. Chapter one. Here he mentions, I bow my knees before the father with the posture, bowing his knees.

[16:14] And it's actually for a first century Israelite. Paul being a Jewish man, it was unusual to bow in prayer. It was more normal to stand and pray with hands lifted up.

[16:28] That was the normal posture. But here Paul talks about I bow my knees. Now he's in a dungeon. OK, he's in Rome in prison in a dungeon.

[16:39] But there, even there in the darkness and in the dampness, he's bowing his knees before the father. He wants the Ephesians to know that.

[16:50] He wants us to know this is his posture. It's not a rule. When I grew up, it was, you know, there were kind of when we prayed, what do we do?

[17:02] You know, what did teachers tell children do in church? How do you pray? All right, bow your knees. No, I mean, bow your heads. All right, close your eyes. All right, put your hands together. All right. You won't find that in the Bible.

[17:16] That was just simply parents or teachers trying to teach children a methodology for prayer. But it's not a rule. Being on your knees in prayer doesn't make you more spiritual.

[17:31] Paul's just letting us know. It's an indication of his urgency. He really wants these folks to understand. And he wants, and by application, he wants us to understand how urgent it is to pray for the power to apply what he's taught us in chapter two.

[17:52] It's a need that's felt deeply. There may be times in your life where you have just felt an urgency, maybe even a desperation.

[18:05] Maybe it's a crisis where you just got alone until you went into your inner room. Right. You went in in secret, like Jesus says, go in secret. Right. And you felt so desperate, you just got on your knees.

[18:17] Now, I like to walk around, you know, sometimes that keeps my mind more active. I don't get distracted or fall asleep if I'm walking, usually, or drive. I need movement to keep my mind going.

[18:30] But there are times when I've gotten on my knees. And not in public, not for people to see, but just felt urgent.

[18:44] Just felt urgent. Even though this is my father, right, there's a sense of, yeah, he's my kind, benevolent father.

[18:56] Right. But he's also the creator. It's like when Jesus calmed the storm in the sea. Right. And what did the disciples do?

[19:07] Immediately, they hit the bottom of the boat. Right. They're bowing before him. Who is this? Right. There's that sense of holiness. There are people in the scriptures who bowed their knees.

[19:22] Solomon, when he dedicated the temple, when the temple was finally done and he's dedicating the temple, praying over the temple, he bows his knees. Daniel, we knew that Daniel was regularly, three times a day, bowing his knees before God.

[19:37] He was facing Jerusalem, right, when he prayed. He did this. That was part of his posture. Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, when he prayed, right, and he's sweating drops of blood, he's on his knees before the Father.

[19:51] And who had a closer relationship to the Father than Jesus? And yet he's on his knees. Paul does this, we see, obviously. When Paul met with the Ephesian elders on that, before he got on the boat, right, they all got on their knees and prayed.

[20:07] There's just times you do that. Just notice that. And Paul's telling us, here's an instance where he did this. And secondly, we notice who he addresses.

[20:17] He says, I bow my knees before the Father. Not the Lord, the Father. Now, Jews, before Jesus, Jews never called God Father.

[20:34] They called him Adonai. They called him Lord. Now, the Old Testament talks about God like a father, and Israel being the children.

[20:48] But never is God addressed as Father in the Old Testament. Jews didn't do that. In fact, they didn't even say Yahweh. They said Hashem. They said the name. But they didn't say what the name was.

[21:01] Hebrew Hashem means the name. They didn't say Yahweh because it's too sacred. And they don't want to empty that name. They don't take that name in vain, right?

[21:12] So they just didn't say it. But Jesus taught us to pray to the Father. He's the first one to say this. He's the first one to teach us it's about a relationship.

[21:26] Father. And Paul writes, I bow my knees before the Father. Literally, I bow my knees to, toward the Father, as in face to face, as in an intimate relationship.

[21:40] And then he says in verse 15 something interesting. From whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. So what does that mean?

[21:52] From whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. Does that mean everybody? Is God the Father of everybody in the world? Everybody under creation? Is that what that means?

[22:05] Is God suddenly now Father to everybody? No matter what your religion, no matter what your beliefs, no matter what your relationship to God is, He's your Father. So which families is he talking about here?

[22:18] Watch carefully now. What? From whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. From whom? From whom? So first of all, let's talk about name.

[22:30] What does it mean that they drive their name? What's name mean in Scripture? Name is significant in Scripture. Names are very significant in the Old Testament.

[22:42] And names are significant in the New Testament. Especially when God names somebody. It's very significant. The names of God are highly significant. Because they're names that describe His character.

[22:55] Or usually something that He's just done. So He tells Abraham, El Shaddai. Right? He tells Sarah, I'm the God who hears.

[23:08] Because He heard her crying. Not Sarah, excuse me. Hagar. Remember Hagar after she's dismissed out of the family? You know, Abraham's concubine.

[23:19] Right? Kicked out of the family. She's crying in the desert and God goes to her and He hears her crying. So He calls Himself the God who hears. Right? So name is defining the nature and gives the significance.

[23:34] Remember, Adam is told to name everything. Right? In the garden when he's told, You know, you name all the animals. You identify these animals. You give them the name.

[23:45] Which symbolically was His power over them. Because He was to rule over them. So He's to name everything. So God names people. God names Solomon.

[23:56] Anybody know what God named Solomon? It's my favorite name. Jedediah. David called him Solomon. God called him Jedediah.

[24:10] Or Yedediah. Which means beloved of God. When we got Zach, that's what I wanted to name Zach.

[24:21] I wanted to name him Jedediah. And Delinda said, Nope, not calling my kid Jed. Because back then there was a Jed Clampett. You know, remember that old Beverly?

[24:32] It's like, Oh, that's it. But it's a beautiful name. I love it. Solomon, right? God names Jesus. Right? Joseph, you shall call Him's name Jesus.

[24:45] Yeshua. Why? Because that name means to save. Savior. Yeshua. Because He, Jesus, will save His people from their sins.

[24:56] Right? So names are significant. Abraham was named from Abram, father, to Abraham, father of nations. Right? Jacob, whose name was heel grabber, right?

[25:08] Deceiver. God changed his name after He wrestled with Jacob. changed his name to? Yisrael, which means, He who wrestles with God.

[25:19] That's what Israel means, by the way. He who wrestles with God. Because Jacob was, Okay, I'll go to that land, and if you keep me safe, then I'll serve you, Lord.

[25:33] Right? Deal maker. Wrestler. He wrestled with everybody. Wrestled. And Israel becomes that who, the people who wrestle with God all through the Old Testament.

[25:45] They're wrestling with God. Fighting with God. Bargaining with God. Rebelling against God. So, name. So, so all of that to say, you know, and then Peter, of course, Simon, you shall be called Peter.

[26:00] Right? You shall be the rock. I'm giving you a new name. Simon, which in Hebrew is, you know, the one who hears. Now you're going to be the rock. You're going to be Peter Petros.

[26:12] Rock. So, what's name? So, here he says, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. So, it's not a name.

[26:24] It's, he's not talking about every family in relation to God as creator. It's not, I bow my knees before the creator from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.

[26:36] No, it's, it's, I bow my knees before the father from whom, from whom the father gives, every family is named.

[26:47] So, what are we named? Once we know the father, the heavenly father, what are we named? Christians.

[27:01] Christians. Children of God. We call each other brother and sister. We're on a family. Right? Many, the church has many pictures, but family is one.

[27:11] Right? Building is one. Body is one. All these pictures of unity. Working together. Our new identity, because as, as a father.

[27:22] father. So, why every family? From whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. Probably is reference to every family, not just the whole family of God, but every family of God, from whom every family, in other words, probably each local church is a local representation of the family of God.

[27:45] Each local church. Right? Same thing in the end of chapter 2 when he talked about the building, the building that comes together. Right? The building, it could be every building there.

[27:57] So, every local representation of the body of Christ is a building. God's building. Right? God's putting all these blocks together. So, we as a local church are, we've got all these different rocks being put together because we're, God's building us the way he wants us to be in this particular community.

[28:16] So, prayer. So, those are the particulars of prayer that Paul just seems to be mentioning. His posture, he prays to the Father, and the fact that we're named in relation to the Father.

[28:30] So, to just look at a little bit more about prayer, Jesus teaches about prayer when the disciples ask him. Right? In Matthew chapter 6, he teaches about how to pray.

[28:40] In Luke chapter 11, the disciples ask him how to pray. How do we pray? You know, John the Baptist taught his disciples how to pray, Jesus? Would you teach us how to pray? How do you want us to pray?

[28:50] And remember, Jesus gives them a prayer, right? Or a pattern of prayer. He says, pray in this way, not in these words. Don't just repeat these words.

[29:01] The Lord's prayer is not something for us just to repeat all the time. No, that's fine. But that's not how he intended it. He intended for us to pray in the manner, in the pattern of the prayer.

[29:12] Right? So we pray, our Father, what? Hallowed be thy name. Then what? Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done.

[29:23] That's three. The first three things about God. Thy name, thy kingdom, thy will. And then give us this day, our daily bread. Forgive us and deliver us.

[29:36] Right? Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us. So the second three about our, so six particular prayers. And then in Luke, he expands on that. So listen to this. He's still teaching on prayer.

[29:47] Luke 11. He says, He said to them, which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, friend, lend me three loves for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey and I have nothing to set before him.

[30:02] And he, your quote unquote friend, will answer from within, do not bother me. The door is now shut and my children are in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything.

[30:15] Can't. Just, he doesn't have the ability apparently. Right? The door's shut, the kids are in bed, I'm not waking the kids up and not getting, not doing it. What a friend. So Jesus says, I tell you, though he will not give, get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his, impudence, shamelessness, persistence, he will rise and give him whatever he needs.

[30:50] And I will, and I tell you, ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives and the one who seeks finds and the one who knocks it will be opened.

[31:02] what father among you, if his son asks you for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent? I mean, what father would do that? Or if his son asked for an egg, he would give him a scorpion.

[31:16] If you then, disciples, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?

[31:28] So Jesus emphasizes three things here in his teaching on prayer. One, the pattern, the six things we pray for. Two, the picture to pray with persistence.

[31:41] Though your friend won't get up and give you what you want because he's your friend, if you keep pounding on that door until he comes, he will. Because of your impudence, your impoliteness, your insistence, your just, I'm staying out here, George, I'm telling you, I'm getting it.

[32:02] Gonna wake up the neighborhood. Kind of a silly expression, but he's talking about we apply that to God. So do we get rude with God?

[32:15] That's not the point. The point is that we persist. The point is that you persist because Jesus applies it and says, therefore, whoever seeks, in other words, keeps on seeking, keeps on asking, keeps on knocking, the one who keeps on coming will get the answer.

[32:33] It's not a name and enclaim it. It's not a one prayer time thing. It's not a say, God, this is, I will believe and it will happen. No, that's, Jesus says, just keep on coming.

[32:43] Just keep on coming. Just keep on coming. Remember the woman? Remember that woman? Remember that woman, Matthew 15, 15, that had the demonized child?

[32:55] Remember Jesus on retreat. He's trying to get away from the crowds and here comes this woman. Remember? Remember? And she's shouting, Jesus have mercy. Jesus have mercy. Jesus ignores at first, so it seems like, okay, yeah, let's just.

[33:09] And then she keeps shouting and then the disciples say, hey, Lord, send her away. She's really annoying. Really compassionate disciples. Right? Send her away. And then Jesus says, well, you know, should I give to dogs, should I give the children's bread to the dogs?

[33:24] Right? Now Jesus sounds downright rude and mean, calling her a dog. Remember what she says. She keeps coming right away.

[33:35] Remember? Even though Jesus doesn't answer right away, she keeps coming. Even though the disciples say, send her away, she keeps coming. Even though the church gives her a negative impression, she keeps coming.

[33:46] Because she's not coming for the church, she's coming for Jesus. And she has a particular belief about Jesus, she keeps coming. And when he says something about dogs, you remember what she said? This is one of the best lines in the scriptures.

[33:59] She says, even the puppies, because she uses a word for dog that means the little ones, even the puppies take the crumbs under the table. And then Jesus says, hey, Peter, did you see that?

[34:16] Did you see that? That's great faith. Hey, Bartholomew, did you see that? That's great faith. Yeah, but Lord, did you see her?

[34:30] What was key about her? She kept coming. She kept coming. Even though it took a while, she kept coming.

[34:41] How's your prayers going? I've been praying for something and he hasn't answered yet. Remember, the answers to prayer are always three, right?

[34:53] One of three. Yes. No. Wait. Keep coming. And what Jesus teaches is the third one is the norm.

[35:10] Keep coming. I'm still testing your faith. Keep coming. I've got a purpose. I've got a purpose for you. Keep coming. That's what Jesus is teaching here about prayer.

[35:22] That's good. Are you asking, are you persisting with an utter shamelessness? I mean, you're in your inner room, so who cares how you say it and what you're saying and how you look if you're slobbering all over your face and you're on your knees and you're on your face.

[35:42] Who cares? You're before your Father and that's the only one that matters when you're praying like that. Do you have a place, by the way, where you can go and do that kind of thing? Get real messy?

[35:56] See? Because faith is real messy a lot of times. Isn't it? It's not nice and clean and name it and claim it and it's nice and thank the Lord always.

[36:10] Okay. Second thing. He teaches us now in verses 16, 17, He gives us the first request. So not just the particulars of prayer, but now we get the prayer to be spirit empowered within.

[36:27] So He's praying for power, but I want you to notice the way He prays. So look carefully at verse 16, 17. 16. All right? I pray. I'm bowing my knees before the Father that He would grant you.

[36:39] So here's what I'm asking God to give to you. To give you, according to the riches of His glory, what? To be strengthened. How?

[36:49] With power. In what way? Through the Spirit. Where? In the inner man. To what result? That Christ may dwell in your hearts.

[37:03] How? By faith. Six things. Not just praying for power. Lord, give us strength. And sometimes that's all we can, you know, because we're, you know, in a hurry.

[37:17] I need strength right now, Lord. But when we're able to be on our knees and we're able to beseech Him in an intimate way, here's how we pray for power. One, strengthen.

[37:30] To be strengthened. Give, grant strengthening. Why would I pray for strength? Why would you pray for strength?

[37:43] Weak. Weak, yeah. Why would I pray for strength? Because I'm really weak. I don't have the capacity, I don't have the ability, naturally, to do things that the Lord calls me to do.

[37:59] To equip me with this strength, to enable me, to empower me. And not just strengthen, but Paul always does this. It's like, strengthen with power. I just went strength, but strength with power.

[38:11] With dunamis. Strength with dunamis, the Greek word. Dunamis. You hear anything in there? Dunamis? Hear an English word that might come from dunamis?

[38:23] Dynamite. Yeah, gets that, you know. So in other words, it's power, right? Dunamis. With power. With God's power. Right? It's the same word he used back in chapter 1 when he was praying that we would come to grasp, right?

[38:38] He prayed that we would understand the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. What kind of power back in chapter 1, verse 19, did He have toward us who believe? We have a song about it, right?

[38:50] The power toward us who believe that is like the power, it's the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. I always point to Ron because Ron leads that song. Right? So, same power that raised Jesus from the dead.

[39:01] Right? is in us, is toward us who believe. Do we really get that? And so now we're praying for that kind of power that's toward us, that God wants toward us to be activated, to be enabled by my faith, by my prayer.

[39:21] Right? So, and then how does God strengthen us with power? Well, it's, notice, in the middle of the verse, it's through His Spirit. through His Spirit.

[39:33] Not through our own ability, through His Spirit. That we walk by the Spirit. We walk by faith and we also walk by the Spirit. What does it mean that we walk by the Spirit?

[39:44] It means we wait upon the Spirit. We don't act in our own power, but we wait upon the Spirit to enable us. The power of God applied to us by His Spirit.

[39:59] So the Spirit dwells in us. Right? The Spirit leads us. The Spirit teaches us. The Spirit is always working within believers. And then when we bear fruit, how do we do that?

[40:15] We bear it, right? So it's the fruit of the Spirit, right? It's not the fruit of Bill. Because the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, all that fruit, if it was just Bill, it'd be a little bit like, eh.

[40:32] But if it's fruit of the Spirit through Bill, then it can be effective. Then it can be powerful. Remember that picture, Jesus said, we bear fruit.

[40:43] I don't produce it. I'm just a vine. I'm not, I'm not the vine. Excuse me. I'm just a branch. I'm not the vine. If I think I'm the vine, then I got problems.

[40:54] He's the vine. I'm the, as long as I'm attached to him. So where does he give this strength? Where is it? Is it outward? Is it like Samson, where I get this kind of external strength and I'm over to, to overpower, you know, all these Philistines?

[41:13] where does the power come? That he would grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit, where? In the inner man. In the inner man.

[41:25] Not outwardly, but inwardly. The inner man. Who's the inner man? The inner man is the new creation. Right? There's an old man and there's a new man. We're going to talk about that in chapter four of Ephesians.

[41:37] The old man, the old way, the natural way of doing things, the things that we do without thinking, the things that we do without trying to do it, we just do it naturally. Right?

[41:48] I explode in anger. I lust. I gossip. I do whatever. I do it naturally. That's my old man. The new man says, oh, wait a minute.

[41:59] New man. Not lie, but tell truth. Not, right, steal, but not be a taker, but be a giver. Etc. Chapter four.

[42:13] So it's a new creation versus old. I've been born of God, so now I have a new nature with it. That's where I fight sin. Okay? So that's three things. That strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man.

[42:28] But go back to the beginning of verse 16. So how much strength, how much power that He would grant you according to the riches of His glory to be strengthened? According to the riches of His glory.

[42:39] How much power is Paul asking for? This is what is amazing about his prayers. He doesn't just say, Lord, be with us. He doesn't just say, Lord, strengthen us.

[42:50] He says, Lord, according to the greatness, according to the riches of Your glory, strengthen us with power through Your Spirit in the inner man.

[43:02] Is Paul getting to something? I mean, does it matter that he's this specific? Yeah, it does.

[43:20] You say, well, the Holy Spirit interprets. Well, yeah, but you need to know how God works. And so the smarter I pray, the more biblically I pray, the more I can look for the right answers.

[43:36] Maybe I don't see God answering because I'm looking in the wrong place. Maybe I'm thinking the strength's going to be outward when God wants it to be inward. Maybe I'm thinking it's through my strength when it's actually supposed to be through the Spirit.

[43:51] See what I'm saying? Paul's being very specific about this. So according to his riches, how much power? Paul's asking for all of it. According to his glory.

[44:03] In other words, the glory is like saying God's glory is like like saying all of his manifested nature. I'm not just asking according to God's might.

[44:14] I'm not just asking according to God's holiness or God's compassion. I'm asking for according to God's glory. And glory is all of it.

[44:28] So see how big this prayer gets? It's pretty big. According to the riches of your glory. You know that stuff that part of you that shined in the Old Testament and everybody couldn't see?

[44:42] Right? That kind of glory where everything else is okay. Everything shuts down. Because it's just God. That kind of glory. It's a limitless supply.

[44:56] So how does it show? How does it show when he gives this? So verse 17. It shows that Christ may dwell in your hearts. That Christ may dwell.

[45:10] The power is shown that Christ is settled down in your heart permanently. It's not that Christ comes into your heart.

[45:21] It's not saying, you know, Father, put Jesus in my heart. Christ is already there. What he's saying is that you might see, that you might know, that he might demonstrate.

[45:33] The power demonstrates that Christ is already dwelling in your heart permanently. He's not just in. He's settled down. He's at home.

[45:47] In my heart. In my heart. When Paul talks about heart, what's he talking about? He's talking about feelings? Feelings? No. He's not talking.

[45:58] When Paul talks about heart, he's not talking about feelings. Hebrew. Hebrew heart is about thoughts and intentions. It's about your will. It's about your thoughts. Right? Hebrews talks about that the Lord can divide between the soul and the spirit and that he might reveal the thoughts and the intentions of the heart.

[46:20] So thoughts and intentions come from the heart. So biblically, we're talking about heart, not talking about feelings. That soul. When we're talking about heart, we're talking about thoughts and intentions. So that Christ may settle down in your thoughts and your intentions.

[46:34] That's better than feelings. So it's how you know. And then by faith.

[46:46] How is all of this applied? That we can be strengthened through his spirit in the inner man according to the riches of his glory that Christ may dwell in my heart by faith or through faith.

[46:58] So in other words, it's not automatic. And it's not natural. It's through faith. It's an active waiting.

[47:09] What is faith? Faith is an active waiting. It is an intentional reliance and an intentional dependence to rely upon him.

[47:20] So faith, belief, trust, right? All the same. Abiding is the same. I'm walking in. I'm trusting in. I walk by faith, which means I trust the Lord is with me and I do that actively.

[47:38] Faith isn't something that, you know, I raised my hand one day and I believed something. I accepted that set of truths and now I'm good. That's not faith.

[47:50] Yeah, you believed in something. You can believe in anything. It doesn't mean you live by it. We walk, so we live by faith. It means something that I'm constantly, intentionally doing.

[48:03] So, how does this look? Where do we apply this prayer for power and what difference does it make?

[48:15] I want to give a practical example that Paul talks about in Philippians 4. And it's a nice, beautiful piece of testimony that Paul gives.

[48:26] And there's a phrase in there that lots of people copy to just take out of it and apply. He says, Philippians 4.12, He says, I know, I know how to be brought low.

[48:40] In other words, I know how to live humbly. And I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, so he's talking about all of life, this applies.

[48:50] In any and every circumstance, no matter what's going on, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.

[49:01] So I know from one extreme to the other. I know having plenty and I know having not enough. I know both ends. I know how to live either way. How?

[49:12] How has he learned this? He summarizes it in one statement. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

[49:25] So there's that power. There's that strength. I can do. This is what I've learned. I've learned how to do all things. Any and every circumstance. I've learned to do all things through him who strengthens me.

[49:45] That's faith. So how did he do it? So now he's going to give an example. Yet it was kind of you, talking to the Philippians, it was kind of you to share my trouble.

[49:55] And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving. In other words, supporting my mission, except you only.

[50:09] Even in Thessalonica, you sent me help for my needs once and again. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit. Because I know how to live with it or without it.

[50:20] I have received full payment. So he's thanking them, right? I have received full payment and more. I'm well supplied. Having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent.

[50:32] And the gifts you sent are a fragrant offering, a sacrifice, acceptable and pleasing to God. In other words, Paul knows that it was sacrificial for these folks to give to him.

[50:45] They gave what they needed. They gave out of their own poverty to help him. Right?

[50:56] And so he wants to, he wants to encourage them. And so what does he say? Here's another statement that we love to summarize. And my God will supply every need of yours who have sacrificed to give to me.

[51:12] My God will supply every need of yours. How? According to his riches in glory. Where did we hear that again?

[51:23] Riches in glory. According to his riches in glory that are in Jesus Christ. Because we've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ. All those blessings, all those treasures are in Christ.

[51:33] Everything that's promised is in Christ. That's why our faith is in him. So how does, where does God apply this power? Sometimes the power is applied to us.

[51:46] We're asking for power. We're asking for strength. Sometimes God supplies that power through other people, ministering to us. Through other people actually sacrificing their time, sacrificing their gifts, sacrificing their needs to minister to us.

[52:03] And sometimes that's where the strength comes from. The strengthening. So, is God teaching you about how to be humble, how to live with abundance, how to live with need?

[52:18] Are you learning the secret of I can do all things through him who strengthens me? Do you abide in him, depend actively on him?

[52:32] In other words, do you regularly cry out to him and confess your need? Seek him. So, how often shall we pray?

[52:48] Well, one eloquent writer put it this way, how often shall we pray? Well, as often as the language of prayer is in my heart, as often as I see my need of help, as often as I feel the power of temptation, as often as I see spiritual distress in my soul, as often as I feel the hostility of the world, as often as I see God's blessing in my life, as often as the Spirit directs me to my Father, as often as you fill in, because we pray without ceasing.

[53:38] It's how we walk our life. That's how we walk by faith. Let's pray. Father, we do ask, Lord, we ask you as our Father that you would grant to us according to the riches of your glory to be strengthened with power through your Spirit in the inner man so that Christ may settle down in our hearts through faith.

[54:08] We ask it according to the name and authority of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.

[54:29]