Tabor Baptist Church

Introduction

• v20-21
• Ladder prayer:
• Rung 1: Strengthened by the Holy Spirit in the inner man
• Rung 2: Rooted and grounded in the love of Christ
• Rung 4: Comprehend the love of Christ
• Rung 4: To be filled with all the fullness of God
• Rung 5: Doxology
• This prayer is a sublime prayer
• Have we ever prayed a prayer like this?
• Paul believes what he is saying - he doesn't doubt God's power or ability
• Paul starts with himself - he bows his knees to God (v14)
• Paul prays for 'you' others (v16)
• Paul prays for 'us' (v20)
• Paul praises God (v20-21)
• Prayer should never just be about ourselves
• We should pray for God's people
• We should pray for God's glory
• Worship, petition and praise
• Our prayers should bring adoration and glory to God
• We exist to glorify God
• This prayer is inspired by the Holy Spirit
• The Holy Spirit still inspires people to pray today
• Not in the same way that Paul was divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit to write down this prayer [as part of Scripture]
• We are called to pray in the Spirit
• Sometimes we feel our prayers are barren
• Is there unconfessed sin? Are we living for self?
• There are other times when the Spirit is really enabling us to lay hold of God

What is He able to do?

• He has done many things that people thought were impossible (2:14)
• The uniting of Jew and Gentile in one body
• The Church of Jesus Christ is always international and made up of lots of different people
• The church as a dwelling place of God by the Holy Spirit (2:22)
• We are a Holy Temple (2:21)
• Do we really know and perceive this?
• God is in the midst of His people
• What value do we place upon the Church of Jesus Christ
• That Christ could dwell in our hearts by faith
• Felt and known amongst the Ephesian people
• That Christ would be formed and dwell in them in a special way
• That Christ would establish their lives in love
• Paul believed that all this was possible because He had the ability to do this
• God can:
• Do what we ask
• Do what we think
• Do what is beyond our ability to think
• Do what is abundantly beyond this
• Do what is exceedingly abundantly beyond this
• God can:
• Change our society (UK)
• Change Portugal and Spain
• Examples of Mission work
• Change the Middle East
• Change North Korea
• Change the fate of 32 million homeless Kurds
• Example of Jim Elliot
• We must not limit God
• Abraham did not understand God's ways
• We must not say 'not this way' like Simon Peter
• Save our family and friends
• Example from Julie
• Paul's statement of faith is not a blank check
• God has infinite resources
• We must ask in faith in accordance with God's will

How is He able to do these things?

• According to the power that works in us (v20b)
• God works through His church and people
• The same power that raised Christ from the dead (1:19-20)
• Do we believe this?
• Remember when we pray that the power of the Holy Spirit is working in us
• We cannot be strengthened by our works but only by the power of the Holy Spirit
• Power to obey the word of God
• Power to understand the dimensions of Christ's love
• Beyond what we can ask or think - is glory/heaven
• We have some glimpses of what heaven will be like
• It is a glorious place
• We will be worshipping God
• Only a fraction has been told us
• One day we will be like Christ in the glory - it will be through the power of God
• We must ask in faith

Why does He do these things?

• That He would have all the glory (v21)
• God would have glory in the church
• God is glorified in Jesus and Jesus is glorified in the church
• Jesus is honoured as God's people love Him and serve Him
• This glory is by Christ Jesus
• We cannot do this ourselves
• We must abide in God
• Do we ever despair of the Church?
• Do we say that Christ and the Holy Spirit dwell in the Church?
• That this glory would be in all generations
• Not just for the time of the Apostles
• We must pray this same prayer
• We must pray great things for God and dream big dreams
• This prayer points us to glory
• It is only when Christ returns that we will be presented as the spotless bride
• We look forward to that day when Christ will come again and take us to Himself