No Power Shortage Here

We read the word of God from Ephesians chapter 3, verse 14 to verse 21. This is Paul's prayer for the Ephesian believers, and this is the way he prays. For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to apprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled unto all the fulness of God.

Now unto him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church, by Jesus Christ throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. And may we today apprehend the power that the Lord has for us.

The disciples came to Jesus one day and they said, Lord, teach us to pray. It's rather interesting that they did not say, Lord, teach us to preach, Lord, teach us how to go visiting, or even, Lord, teach us how to do miracles. They said, Lord, teach us to pray, because they realized in their own lives that something was missing.

They had seen in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ that he was a man of prayer. In Mark chapter 1 we are told that after a night of busy ministry, when our Lord was healing many people, the next morning, a great while before day, he rose up early and went out to pray. And if our Lord Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, had to be a man of prayer, how much more do you and I have to be people of prayer when we consider all the weaknesses that we have? We don't like to face this, but it's true.

Our living is only as good as our praying. No one listening to my voice right now, including this preacher, is any better than his praying. The measure of our lives is not our ceaseless activity or our much speaking.

The measure of our lives is our praying. The level of my Christian life is not simply the level of my Bible knowledge or the level of my church involvement. The level of my Christian life is the level of my praying.

I think all of us need to not only pray more, but pray better. If a person tries to perfect communications between himself and somebody else, he gets closer. And if we try to perfect our communications between us and God, we'll get closer.

I like to read the prayers of the Apostle Paul because they convict me. They not only show me what God has for me, but they show me how much I need to learn how to pray. We have such a prayer here today in Ephesians chapter 3, verses 14 through 21.

This is the second of two prayers that Paul prays in his letter to the Ephesians. The other one is over in chapter 1, beginning at verse 15, where he prays for enlightenment. He prays that the eyes of their heart might be opened, that they might understand what God has done.

The prayer in Ephesians 1 is a prayer for enlightenment. The prayer here in Ephesians 3 is a prayer for enablement. He's not talking so much about knowledge as power.

He's talking about God working in our lives for his glory. I'd like for us to take this prayer of the Apostle Paul and study it, and by studying it, improve our own praying. The most important part of your life is the part that only God sees.

That's your prayer life. I'm not even talking about public prayer. I'm talking about private prayer.

Someone may say, Pastor Wiersbe, I don't pray privately. Then you don't have much life. I'm trusting that before this meeting ends today, each of us will be somewhat convicted before God about this matter of improving our praying, praying the way God wants us to pray.

The example is given here in the prayer of the Apostle Paul. Using Paul's prayer as the basis, let's examine our own prayer life by asking four questions. Question number one, why am I praying? Paul begins with, for this cause.

For what cause? Well, he started this back in chapter 3 verse 1. For this cause, I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles. For what cause? The cause that he's talking about in chapter 2 verses 21 and 22. He's talking about the building of the church, in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are built together for inhabitation of God through the Spirit.

For this cause, I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, why was Paul praying? Paul was praying because Paul was caught up in the great work that God was doing. Now, people pray for different reasons.

The Pharisees prayed to be heard and seen and praised. Jesus said, when you pray, pray not like the Pharisees, for they think they're heard for their much speaking. They stand out in the street corners and pray that people might say, aren't they godly? I make this statement without apology.

Nobody has any right to pray in public who doesn't pray in private. It is blasphemy and hypocrisy for someone to pray in public who's not accustomed to praying in private. The Pharisees prayed to be praised of men.

Some people pray because it's a habit, and it's a good habit to have. There's nothing wrong with habits as long as habits don't become rituals. A ritual is a habit without any heart to it.

Nothing wrong with the habit of brushing your teeth or combing your hair or learning how to park your car. Nothing wrong with the habit of prayer. But simply to pray from habit could be a little less of a motive.

Some people pray because of fear. Oh, if I don't pray, something might happen, and truly something might happen. But it's a poor motive for praying.

Some people pray out of greed. They want something. Well, Jesus prayed because he needed the help of his Father, and Paul prayed because he was caught up in the great work that God was doing.

For this cause, for the cause of the building of the church, I'm going to come, says Paul, and I'm going to pray. Now, this excites me. Paul is not praying about his own little needs.

Nothing wrong with praying about our needs. All of you know the so-called Lord's Prayer, which probably should be called the Disciple's Prayer, because our Lord could never pray the Lord's Prayer and say, Forgive me. But you know the Lord's Prayer, and it begins with God.

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Then, says Jesus, once you have been caught up in what God is and in what God is doing, move into your own needs. Give us this day our daily bread. Jesus isn't saying God isn't concerned about daily bread, or God isn't concerned about jobs, or houses, or taxes, or arthritis, or operations.

He is concerned. But all of these things, all of these needs, are a part of something much bigger, and that's the way Paul prayed. Paul, when he prayed, got the big vision.

Paul, when he prayed, moved out of the narrowness of bigotry and prejudice—my group, my church, my denomination, my needs—and he saw the greatness of the church that God was building. That's interesting. I notice here that when Paul prayed, he was caught up in spiritual needs, not material needs or physical needs.

If I had been a prisoner, chained, facing trial, possible death, my prayer would have been something, for the cause of setting me free, for the cause of breaking this chain, for the cause of saving my life. But Paul doesn't pray like that. You see, Paul looks upon himself, his needs, his work, as a part of something bigger, and this is what improves our prayer life.

When I bow to pray, I say to myself, now why am I praying? To get relief from my bursitis? Nothing wrong with that. To get money to pay a bill? Nothing wrong with that. But suppose my health is restored.

What will I do with it? Suppose my bills are paid. Then what will I do? Am I lost in something bigger than myself? I note here that Paul is praying about the inner man, to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man. I dare not judge anybody else's praying.

I have my own to take care of. But I am prone to believe that in many of our lives, most of our praying has to do with the outer man, not the inner man. The body, the material needs of the body, the discomforts, the circumstances around us, and yet Paul doesn't pray this way.

Why am I praying? To be comfortable? Why am I praying? To be delivered from some affliction? Nothing wrong with comfort or deliverance, provided they are a part of something bigger. You see, he ends this prayer with that magnificent doxology, unto him be glory in the church. Now, at the beginning of the prayer, for this cause, what cause? The church.

The end of the prayer, glory in the church. Paul's praying is circumscribed by the greatness of the work of God in the world. He's building a church.

What are you building? What are you building? I'm going to have a hard time praying for something that is outside of the plan of God. He's not praying for his own pleasure, he's praying for God's glory. And this convicts me.

Why do I pray? Do I pray for God's great plan to be fulfilled? Do I pray for the spiritual things to be accomplished? Do I pray for the inner man to be a part of what God is doing? Do I pray that all of this will bring glory to God in the church? If I don't, that prayer probably is not going to be answered. And so the next time I pray, I'd better ask myself the question, why am I praying? Now, there's a second question that grows out of this prayer in verses 14 and 15. How am I praying? Why am I praying has to do with my aim, my ambition.

How am I praying has to do with my attitude. Now, Paul says here, for this cause, I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, in whom every fatherhood in heaven and earth is named. The very concept of family and fatherhood comes from God.

He's the Father. Now, he asks the question, how am I praying? And he answers it by saying, I'm praying as a son to a father, and I am praying as a servant to a master. I am coming as a son to a father.

I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, it's obvious that unsaved people really have no right to come to the Father and pray because they can't call him Father. I don't doubt that God has answered prayers of people outside the family of God.

He causes his rain and his sunshine to come upon the wicked and the good and upon the just and the unjust. And God, in his graciousness, has answered the prayers of unsaved people, but he's not obligated to do so. Paul is saying, I pray as a son to a father.

It's a family affair. Jesus said, if ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father in heaven give good things to them that ask him? You know, so many times we come and we don't have this attitude of son and father. I think I speak for every father and mother, every grandfather and grandmother when I say this, we delight to meet the needs of our children.

It gives us great delight to sacrifice, to go out of our way, to rearrange our schedule, to do everything we can to meet the needs of our children. We don't do it out of a sense of obligation or responsibility. We do it out of a sense of love and affection.

We enjoy it. And God enjoys caring for his children. Now, when I pray, do I come as a son to a father? Do I come claiming my inheritance? Do I come as a servant to a master? He says, I bow my knees.

Have you ever studied posture in prayer? As you turn the pages of your Bible, you'll discover that many people had different postures for prayer. In our Sunday school, when the children pray, we teach them to fold their hands and close their eyes. But you'll never find this anyplace in the Bible.

Now, if children are going to close their eyes, they had better fold their hands. I think it's a good safety factor, myself. But nowhere in the Bible are we taught to put our hands together.

The praying hands is a very meaningful and beautiful piece of art. But nowhere in the Bible are we taught to put our hands together or to fold our hands or to close our eyes. In fact, Jesus says, watch and pray.

Abraham, when he prayed, in Genesis chapter 18, stood before the Lord, and he interceded for Sodom. Oh, Lord, if you find 40 just people, if you find 10, he just kept interceding. He didn't fall on his face, didn't fall on his knees.

He just stood before the Lord. So did Solomon. When Solomon prayed in dedicating the temple, he prayed the way most Jewish people prayed back in that day and the way many Orthodox Jewish people pray today.

He stood and lifted up his hands. I like that way of praying. It looks as though you're expecting to get something.

And so Solomon stood and lifted his hands and lifted his eyes and his heart, and he prayed. That's a good way to pray. I read that David, when he prayed, sat down when the prophet came to him and said, God is going to build a house for you.

You want to build God a temple? No, God's going to build a house for you. God's going to give you a throne. God's going to bring through your family, David, the Messiah.

And David was so overwhelmed. He just went in and the scripture says, and he sat before the Lord. He just went in and sat down and talked to God.

It's rather interesting that David talked like a little child in this respect. He says, what more can David say to thee? You know, little children use their own names when they come to you. They come and say, Larry wants a cookie.

They use their own names. Adults don't do that. If I walked up to my wife and said, Warren would like to have the keys to the car, she would wonder about it.

But when David prayed, he was so overwhelmed. He came like a child and said, oh God, what more can David say? And he sat before the Lord. When Hezekiah got that awful letter that was so devastating and so threatening, the scripture says he went in and he spread it before the Lord.

There are many different postures for prayer. My Lord Jesus, when he prayed, fell upon his face. He fell upon his face and prayed, oh, if it's possible, let this cup pass from me.

So the postures for prayer are not really physical, they're spiritual. I don't know if Paul literally bowed his knees. He was chained to a Roman soldier.

It must have been interesting to be the soldier and to be chained to someone who said, pray without ceasing. I'm sure he learned a lot, probably got converted. But be that as it may, in the book of Ephesians, posture is an important thing.

For example, in chapter 2 of Ephesians, we are dead. We are lying there flat on our back in the grave, dead in trespasses and sin. Then we're raised and seated with Christ in the heavenlies.

And so we are raised and we are seated. And then over in chapter 4 he says, stand and walk. I think Watchman Nee has an excellent book called Sit, Stand, Walk, in which he deals with these spiritual postures in Ephesians.

Paul is talking about a spiritual posture, whether you're riding in your car or walking down the street. And I love to pray walking down the street, not to be seen of men. They don't know I'm doing it, but the phone is not ringing and there's no one there to interrupt.

And it's such a delight to walk to the hospital to make a visit and talk to God, whether you're walking or sitting or lying on your bed. If you can get up, you're better off getting up, bowed before God as a servant to a master. How do I pray? Am I praying with arrogance or with humility? Am I praying with love? Am I coming as a son to a father and saying, Father, it's your great delight to take care of me.

It's your marvelous delight just to love me and meet my needs. I was reading one of the prayers of Charles Finney, the great evangelist, and he was praying for some of his unsaved friends. And he closed his prayer by saying, And Father, you know that I am not accustomed to being denied in these things.

Now, he could pray like that because he was a man very close to God. When Finney prayed, he moved into the Holy of Holies and he was intimate with God. And so he could say to his father, Father, this is your will, and I'm not accustomed to being denied in these things.

We come as a servant to a master. We come as a son to a father. Which raises the third question, for what am I praying? I don't think other people have any business knowing what we're praying about.

I keep a number of prayer lists so that I can remember when I say to somebody, well, I'll be praying for you because I want to keep my promise. And so I have a number of lists that I use in different days and in different ways. But there are some things I pray about that are only written on my heart.

Only God knows about it. No one has a right to know what we're praying about. But wouldn't it be good for us to pray the way Paul prayed? There are four requests in verses 16 through 19.

I wonder if you have ever prayed for any of these requests. First, there's the request for strength, that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man. Now, the inner man has needs just like the outer man does.

The inner man needs to be fed. Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word. The inner man needs to be cleansed.

Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. The inner man needs to be dressed. In Colossians 3, he talks about putting off the grave clothes and putting on the grace clothes of the gospel.

The inner man needs to be exercised. Paul said to Timothy, exercise thyself rather unto godliness. And the inner man needs to have power.

Now, there are times when the outer man is very weak. In fact, the flesh is weak, and many times the body is. There have been demands made upon us, and we have said, I just can't get through it.

I have got so much to do today, I'll just never make it. And about the middle of the afternoon, we collapse. This happens spiritually sometimes.

Paul is praying that they might have strength, spiritual strength, through the Holy Spirit in the inner man. You see, you and I have the idea that God gives us tasks that match our strength. He doesn't.

He gives us strength to match our tasks. That's the difference between children and adults. You give to a child a task to match his strength.

You wouldn't ask a five-year-old child to move a piano. But to an adult, you give tasks that will draw the very best out of him and make demands upon him. And God gives to us not tasks according to our strength.

He gives us strength according to our tasks. And you say today, well, pastor, I've got so many demands upon me, I'll never make it. God knows that.

So ask him for strength in the inner man. The second prayer is a prayer for depth. Verse 16, strength.

Verse 17, depth, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye being rooted and grounded in love. Now, there are three words there that show us that Paul is talking about depth. First is the word dwell, that Christ may dwell in your heart.

You say, but I'm saved. He already dwells in my heart. This is a deeper word.

This word means to feel at home in your heart, to settle down and feel at home, not to be a visitor. Although when Jesus comes into your heart, he'll never leave. But he sometimes has to act like a visitor because we treat him that way.

I have been in homes. I have lived in homes where I did not feel at home. And Paul is saying, I want some depth in your life.

I want that Jesus Christ shall settle down and feel at home in your heart. Then he talks about being rooted. Now, of course, this is a vegetable term.

This is a term that comes out of agriculture. For the most part, roots don't go across the surface of the ground. They go down deep.

The strength of the tree is in the root. The strength of the plant is in the root. It reaches down and draws up the nourishment.

And the deeper the root, the more stability there is. Paul is saying, oh, I want you to get your roots down deep, rooted and grounded in love, not in power. He prayed about power up here in verse 16.

If you don't balance power with love, you've got tyranny. There are Christians who want all kinds of power that they might show off. They want to do things for God and be bragged about.

Paul said, let's balance that power with love. I want you rooted in his love. I want you drawing upon his love.

The word grounded is an architectural term. He's talking about laying a foundation. You don't lay the foundation on the top unless you're building a slab house.

You dig down. Jesus said two men built houses. One dug deep and built his house upon the rock.

In the last building program I was in, I thought we never would get out of the ground. We were building on an old riverbed and the architect said, we're going to have to make these foundations strong. And they dug and dug and dug and poured concrete and poured.

I thought they're going to fill the whole hole with concrete. And I got a little impatient one day and I said to the architect, are we ever going to get out of that ground? He said, preacher, if you don't go down deep, you can't go up high. And that was a sermon to me.

If you don't go down deep, you can't go up high. The most important part of your life is the part only God sees. You don't see the foundation, but it's there.

He's praying for depth. He's saying, I want Jesus Christ deeply to feel at home in your heart. I want your roots to go deep into love.

I want your foundations to go deep into the things of God rooted and grounded. Then in verses 18 and 19, he prays for this thing we call apprehension. Now you know what the word prehensile means.

You can walk down the street to Lincoln Park and see the monkeys. On second thought, we may not have to go quite that far, but the monkeys have a prehensile tail. That is a tail that can wrap around and take hold of.

To apprehend means to get your hands on. That he would grant you what? That you might have this wealth, the riches of his grace, the riches of his glory, all of his power. It's yours.

Now reach out by faith and take it. That's what he's saying. When God gave to Abraham his inheritance, although he never really inherited it, but it was his.

He has yet through his people to inherit it. When God gave to Abraham his inheritance, he said, now I want you to walk through the land, through the length and through the breadth. He gave to Abraham a two-dimensional blessing.

He says to you and me, I want you to walk through the land, the length and the breadth and the depth and the height. I want you to live in four dimensions, the dimension of God's grace, the dimension of God's love. Move out into an expansiveness of your Christian life.

Why is it some Christians try to live smaller and smaller when he's laid before us the whole land? And so he prays for appropriation. He says, I want you to apprehend, get your hands on what Jesus died to give you. You remember, I know, the story about the Civil War veteran who used to walk around and tell tales about the war.

And he always ended up by reaching in his pocket and pulling out a piece of paper and saying, I've got Mr. Lincoln's signature here. He was very proud of carrying Mr. Lincoln's signature. And one day a man said, let me see that paper.

He looked at it. He said, do you know what you've got here? He said, you've got a lifetime pension. Why are you walking around looking like a hobo when according to this piece of paper, the government's going to take care of you? I think we're like this.

We walk around with somebody's signature. We walk around with our Bible and we can pray and we can sing. And all the while we're living like hobos, living like paupers.

When he says, look, I've purchased this for you on the cross. Now get a hold of it. So he prays that they might receive power and he prays that they might receive depth and he prays that they might appropriate what they have, which leads in verse 19, his fourth request.

He prays for fullness to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge. You can't describe it, that you might be filled unto all the fullness of God. That little word translated with is unto that you might be filled unto that you might be controlled by God, a growing fullness of God.

Why has Jesus Christ died? He's building a habitation chapter two, verse 22, in whom ye also are built together for an habitation of God through the spirit. He wants to live in you and fill you and walk in you and talk through you and love through you. And Paul says, please, don't be empty.

Oh, lay hold unto the fullness of God. That's praying. You know, when you start praying like this, my friends, some of the little things that we're worried about fall into place, don't they? I don't know that a hundred years from now, it's going to make a lot of difference what color shoes we wear or whether or not our back hurts.

I don't know that a hundred years from now, it's going to make a lot of difference how our hair is fashioned, but a hundred years from now, it's going to make a lot of difference whether or not we prayed like this, because the one thing you're going to take to heaven with you is character. You're going to take with you the Christian character that you've built, and so will I. It's gonna make a lot of difference how we've prayed. There's a fourth question we ask ourselves.

Why am I praying and how am I praying and for what am I praying? And here's the hard one now, verses 20 and 21. Question number four, am I willing to be a part of the answer? Now unto him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. Isn't that marvelous? He is able.

He is able to do. He's able to do abundantly. He's able to do exceeding abundantly.

He's able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. That's marvelous, but don't stop there. How does he do all of this? According to the power that worketh in us.

Oh, Moses was out taking care of sheep one day and crying out to God for his people in Egypt, and God said, good, I'm going to send you. Jesus said to his disciples, pray the Lord of the harvest that he'll send laborers, and in the next chapter he sends them. A fellow came from Jerusalem one day to the court, and Nehemiah said, what's going on down in Jerusalem? Oh, he said the walls are falling down, the gates are burned up, and Nehemiah began to weep and to pray, and God said, Nehemiah, I'm going to send you.

Mr. Moody went all over the city of Chicago trying to win people to Christ, building a Sunday school and building a church and weeping over the cities, and God said, I'm going to send you. It's dangerous to pray, my friend. Now, I might be able to pray in the right motives.

Why do I pray for the glory of God and the building of his church? How do I pray as a son to a father, as a servant to a master? For what do I pray? For the spiritual blessings I really need. If I have this, everything else will be taken care of. Not wrong to pray about material things or physical things, but this comes first.

But now, Lord, here's the big question. Am I willing to be a part of the answer? You're praying about something in the Moody church. Are you willing to be a part of the answer? You're praying about something in your block or your apartment or your school.

Are you willing to be a part of the answer? Otherwise, our praying is shallow. We've to be available. You see, prayer does not mean I throw things at you and say, God, do this for them.

Do this for them. Prayer means, God, here I am. Oh, I long to see this happen.

And God says, fine, let me work in you and then through you. Then we'll touch the lives of other people. True praying is not trying to get man's will done in heaven.

It's getting God's will done on earth. Phillips Brooks used to say, praying is not overcoming God's reluctance. It's laying hold of God's willingness.

And the most beautiful thing about prayer is that it not only blesses other people for whom I pray, it blesses me. God works in me and through me. Now, are you available to be a part of the answer? Whenever I read Paul's prayers, I get convicted.

I get convicted of the shallowness of my own praying, the carelessness, the selfishness, the narrowness. Oh, the dimensions of God's grace are so vast. Why should we live like paupers? The depths of God's love are so marvelous.

Why should we live like paupers? My friends, let's lay hold of that for which Jesus died to give us. He longs to share with us his riches, and these riches will be ours if we'll just learn how to pray. Gracious Father, I need this.

I pray you will help me in my own praying. Oh God, forgive me for wasting time praying about things that really aren't a part of your will. Forgive me most of all, Lord, for wanting you to do things for me and not do things in me.

Help us each one. Teach us to pray. For Jesus' sake, amen.