The Necessity of Prayer

I'm going to ask you guys if you would just join with me in prayer, We definitely need for the Lord to show up. We need for the Lord to reveal Himself to us. If he does, then we will be captivated, and we also need for the Lord to give to us a capacity to be able to take him in. And so let's pray that he would strengthen us as well with might by His Spirit in our inner person, that Christ would dwell in our hearts through faith.

Join with me in prayer, please. Lord, we come before you. And we quiet our hearts before you. We are desperate for You, Lord.

And we would ask that you would see fit. To reveal yourself to us. We pray that This would not be a mere intellectual exercise. We pray, Lord, that you would reveal God.

To us We pray, Lord, that through your words and through the power of the gospel, That you would strengthen us. With power By the Spirit In the inner man The Christ would dwell in our hearts through faith. We pray, Lord, that you would help us to remove the distractions of the week, even of this day. and help us to gaze intently.

At your word. And through your word to lay hold of the Almighty. Lord, we, we cannot Pick ourselves up by our own bootstraps and make ourselves to. To see you Make ourselves to be strong in the inner man.

We need you, Lord. I pray, Father, that You would bless your people who are here. Those who belong to you, that you would just bless them and minister to them and, Sanctify them. I pray, Lord, that if there is anyone who is here with us this morning.

who has yet to come into a relationship with you. I pray, Lord, that you by your Spirit would Just work on them. I pray that you would open up the eyes. That you would show yourself to them.

I pray if it would be your will for one or even more to be saved. This morning And Lord, I pray these things that you might be glorified. And that we would be strengthened and edified in Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Brothers and sisters, it perhaps comes as no surprise to you when I tell you that we are in a battle. We are in a serious battle and the stakes are extremely high. We've got two kingdoms, if you will, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. And as we understand from what the Bible teaches us, we are all born into the kingdom of Satan.

And for those of us who are born again, we have entered into the kingdom of God's beloved Son. We are no longer children of darkness, but we are children of light. And so there are many of us here who, who belong to the Lord, who are in His kingdom, who are his children, but there is a war going on. There are countless people out there who do in fact belong to the kingdom of the evil one, and they, if they remain there when they die, they will spend their eternity in the lake of fire.

There may be a person here this morning who has yet to be born again, and if you are to die outside of Christ, you will spend your eternity in the lake of fire in hell, separated from God because of your sins against Him. There are some of us, though, the majority of us, we are in Christ, we are in His kingdom, and I would submit to you that for some of us, perhaps even many of us, we find ourselves as we are engaging in this battle, struggling. Are you struggling? Are there things of concern on your heart this morning?

Some of us are wrestling with issues related to economics, related to finances, and some of us are battling with relational issues. Perhaps you have been sinned against in a significant way and you're just wrestling with the attitude of anger and bitterness inside of you, and you're just not sure that you have the ability to forgive that person who has hurt you. Some of us are struggling with the fact that we've got loved ones who are ill. Loved ones who are perhaps on the verge of passing into eternity.

And for some of us, that loved 1 may be a nonbeliever and that is a great concern. For others it may be a loved one who is in Christ and there is a comfort there, but still the thought of parting ways. With that one that you love. Comes pressing against you.

There are some of us in this room this morning who are discouraged. You are discouraged. Some of us may be disillusioned, having doubts. Brothers and sisters, we are, we are engaged in warfare and some of us are struggling even with indwelling sins, sins that we're battling with, sins that it seems as if we've, we've tried 1000 different ways of trying to break free from it and we find ourselves slipping into that same sin again, and it serves as a discouragement to us.

And so what I am saying is that sometimes we might find ourselves in a weakened state. Did you come here this morning feeling weak. Do you come here this morning feeling as if you're not walking in the spirit, exulting in the Lord, glorifying God to the degree that you feel that you ought to. Are you discouraged because of, because of issues in life?

Do you find yourself in a weakened state? Brothers and sisters, can I say? That there are folks. To the side of you perhaps, Brothers and sisters in Christ around you.

If it's not you who is struggling, it's someone else. What do we do in the midst of the battle? OK. What do we need during those times that we experience weakness?

We need prayer. We need to pray. What do we do when those around us are battling, struggling, discouraged, losing the battle? What do we do?

We pray, we pray. Our sermon this morning is entitled The Necessity of Prayer, The Absolute necessity of prayer. Three Truths that should inform and motivate us to pray. Now before we jump into this, let me say something real quick.

If you've got notes in front of you and you plan on filling in the blanks, please forgive me if I get you confused in that because I'm going to just let it fly at this point. I'll try to be true to the notes, but there may be a place or two where you're like, Oh my gosh, you lost me. Just try to hear what the Lord has to say through me as I seek to preach out of the overflow of my heart this morning, OK? I'll do the best that I can, but bear with me.

So again, 3 truths that should inform. And motivate us to pray. Truth number one, prayer is necessary for knowing God. OK.

Prayer is absolutely necessary for knowing God. Mind you, we are not talking here about the non-believer, we are talking here about the believer, the person who has been sealed by the Spirit who is born again. Prayer is necessary for such a person in order to know God. We're not talking about knowing in the sense of justification, we're talking about knowing in the sense of intimacy.

And so that's the first point. Let us read the verse together, let us read the passage together. If you have your Bibles, turn to Ephesians chapter 1, verse 15. Ephesians chapter 1, verse 15.

We're going to be looking at the forest and not the trees, OK? So, keep in mind, there may be some details that I'm going to leave out. I don't have the time to get into all of the details, but just take a bird's eye glance and look at the big picture, and I trust that the Lord will minister to you through this big picture as we look at it. Ephesians 1:15.

Apostle Paul says, for this reason, I too, Having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus, which exists among you, and your love for all of the saints, I do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers. And please note the request, beginning in verse 17, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, May give to you, that He may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. Underline that if you would put a circle around that, that is his prayer that the Lord would give to them a spirit, a disposition of wisdom, the ability to know how The truth connects to life and how to apply truth to life and of revelation and unveiling in the knowledge of him, this word knowledge, we're going to get into it a little more here in a second, but it conveys the idea of intimacy and relationship.

It is a term of relationship, a term of intimacy.

He is not concerned about mere intellectual knowledge. He at this point is concerned that they would know. know him, that they would know God intimately. And so he prays that the eyes of their heart may be enlightened, that the eyes of their heart may be enlightened, and here now we get the reason that he makes the prayer that he makes.

Here it is, so that you may know, and there are 3 things that he wants them to know, so that you may know what is the hope of his calling. What are the riches of the glory of its inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power to us who believe the greatness of his power to us who believe these are in accordance with the working of the strength of his might, which he brought about in Christ. When he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places.

I want to first of all look at the request inside of this prayer.

The request is this, to know God intimately. To know God intimately. This is what Paul's passion for the Ephesians is at this moment in his prayer for them. He wants them to know God intimately.

He's already given gospel. He's already made clear gospel truth. He has directed them to Christ and the resources, the riches that they have in Christ. He's done that already, but now he's at the place where he is wanting to pray gospel truth into the fabric of their being and so he's wanting to pray.

He knows that in order for that, Happen. He's got to pray for them that they would first and foremost know God intimately, that they would in fact not just know God and gospel truth, but they would know it in a real intimate personal relational a way that it would be their own and that it would be something that would sink deep into the fabric of their being. Martin Lloyd Jones in commenting on this word knowledge or know, has this to say. Again, Paul is praying.

That they would have a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Christ. That's what we're keying in on knowledge of Christ. Listen to what Martin Lloyd Jones has to say in commenting on this verse and in speaking on this word in particular. What we have here is quite staggering and astounding.

He, Paul, is concerned that we should have an immediate knowledge of God, a real fellowship with God. To use the current theological expression, he is concerned that we should have an encounter with God. He means a knowledge of God that is personal. And intimate.

Whatever views we may hold of certain modern tendencies in theological teaching, we must at least agree that this returning emphasis on the idea of a divine human encounter, a meeting with God, this existential moment when I know that God is there and I hear, the thou I and the I thou relationship is good. The knowledge Paul has in mind is not mere theory, mere notion, not something abstract or academic. It is personal, immediate, a real meaning. He is praying about the true knowledge of God.

Brothers and sisters, when we come face to face with the Almighty through spiritual eyes, that can make all of the difference in the world. Martin Lloyd Jones goes on. In his commentary to say this, it is almost impossible to put this truth into words. This is beyond words.

But it means that God should be real to us. And that we should be conscious of him and conscious of his presence. I make no apology for asking whether you have ever known this. Is God real?

To you? Is God real to you or is he just some intellectual understanding and concept that you have? Is he real to you? When you get on your knees and pray, do that God is there?

Do you realize? His presence. You see, Paul is praying for the Ephesians, that God would grant to them a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the true knowledge of God. I ask you, has God revealed his person to you, to where you can say, without doubt that I do know God.

You may not know him to the degree that he can be known, but do him relationally? Is he your Father in heaven, and do you find that you love him and that you worship him as the deer pants for streams of living water? Does your soul yearn for God? Can you say that one thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek.

That I might dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life and to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord. Is that the passion of your heart for God? This is what Paul is praying for the Ephesians, and by way of extension, this is what we ought to be praying for one another. Let this inform how you pray for yourself and for others as well.

And as we continue in the passage, we move along from the request to reasons for the request, and the reasons can be lumped underneath this broad umbrella category. The reasons are to know gospel truth. To know gospel truth. When you have an encounter with the divine, he will then help you to understand gospel truth.

He will help you to understand the, the truths that are contained in scripture. He will help you to understand what it is that he has given to you in Christ. He will illumine the eyes of your understanding, if you will. He will grant to you that wisdom that you need.

And so the reasons for the request to know Gospel truth, there are 3 specific things here. First, As Paul goes on to say, that you might know what is the hope of your calling, to know the hope of his calling. God has called us through Christ by means of the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ into an intimate relationship with Himself. He has called us into a relationship with Him.

We who were his enemies have now been through the blood of Jesus brought near. We who were enemies have now been declared to be sons of the Most High God, and he is our Father in heaven. He has called us among many things, he has called us into intimacy with Himself, among many things. He has called us to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which we have been called.

But the second thing is to know what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. Now, the way I am taking this is that we're talking about God's inheritance. He has an inheritance and his inheritance is us. Now think about that with me for a sec.

What is required in order for an inheritance to be received? What had to happen in order that God would receive us as his inheritance? Well, death is required. Death is required, and we know based upon the teaching of God's word, That some 2000 years ago, Jesus died for us, and he presents us to his Father as a gift to the Father.

We are his inheritance. The idea is that God dies for us, God the Son dies for us so that he might receive us. God the Father might receive us as his inheritance. We are his inheritance.

The riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. What an absolutely staggering concept. that he would make us to be His inheritance. And then the third thing is to know the surpassing greatness of his power.

To know the surpassing greatness of his power. And if you take a look at that passage, He says in verse 19, that you would know what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe, and notice what he goes on to say, in accordance with the working of the strength of his might, which he brought about in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. OK, this power of God that we are talking about is directly associated with the gospel and in particular, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ bodily from the dead and his ascension into the right hand of the Father.

That is the gospel truth that this power, this idea of power should cause our minds to reflect upon.

To know the surpassing greatness of his power. See, Paul is praying the prayer that he prays that we would know God, so that we would be able to, to, to lay hold of these, these three things. And so the first point really is that prayer. is necessary for knowing God.

Let us move on to the 2nd point. Prayer is necessary for spiritual strength. OK? And we're gonna derive this from the second prayer.

So we're moving from Paul's first prayer where he basically is praying that the Lord would just give them understanding that God would be revealed to them and that they would just have this understanding that they would be able to understand what he's proclaimed to them, that they would be able to really get gospel truth in terms of understanding it, not just intellectually, but in their heart of hearts, but now we move to the second prayer. And it's a prayer for spiritual strength.

Ephesians chapter 3 verse 14, please read in your Bibles as I read it aloud. He says for this reason, I bow my knees before the Father.

From whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. And here is the request that he would grant you according to the riches of His glory. That he would grant you. To be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man.

So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend, may be able, may have the capacity, may have the ability, may be strengthened, may be strong enough to comprehend with all of the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and be strong enough and have the capability and have the, the, the, the, the ability to know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge. That you may be filled up to all of the fullness of God.

So as we take a look at this prayer, it's similar to the other prayer in that Paul begins with a request and gives those reasons as to why he's praying such a prayer.

And here again, we've got the request delivered first and then we'll come up with a few reasons for the request. Let's look at the request first. It is to be strengthened by the Spirit and then dwelt by Christ. That is essentially what his prayer to the Lord on behalf of the Ephesians is to be strengthened by the Spirit, and then dwelt by Christ.

Oh God, I pray that you might strengthen them. With might, by the Spirit, in the inner man. I'm praying for them, that Christ might dwell in their heart through faith, so that they, being rooted and grounded in the love of God might be able to comprehend, right? You get the idea of what he is praying for to be strengthened by the Spirit, and then dwelt by Christ.

I've got a diagram here that tries to flesh out more literally I guess what the passage is saying because I discovered that it's a little bit tricky, not that it's a big deal, but in the English translations, it's a little bit tricky because none of them I think really, really serve to help me to really understand what's going on here. So if you look at that little diagram, here's what you will notice. I'll read it to you and just unpack it as we go, that he would grant you, that's, that's him.

Praying to God, asking God to grant to them according to the riches of His glory, and here are the two requests that is making, that he is making.

Number one, to be strengthened, OK, strengthened with power through the spirit and the inner man, and then secondly, to dwell. OK, these are both infinitives and so they are both in that sense parallel to one another to be strengthened and to dwell. Well, who is to dwell? It's Christ dwelling in them through faith.

That's the idea. Well, let's go ahead. And then, and then, and then the in order that grammatically comes after that. So in order that, that's where we get the two ideas that you would just, understand the love of Christ, that you would be filled, that's the idea, OK.

And so for believers to be strengthened, that's what he's asking to be strengthened. Spiritual strength is the work of God. It's something that God does. That's why Paul prays to God for them to be strong.

Strengthened here is in the passive, OK? In other words, it's, it's not something that they do to themselves. We cannot strengthen ourselves. It is something that God does to us.

OK, we are passive in that sense, that God is the one that needs to be strengthening us. OK, with, with power by the spirit in the inner man. Spiritual strength here is for the children of God. He is praying this prayer for God's people.

Spiritual strength necessitates the need for for power, OK? Strengthened with might or strengthened with power, strengthened with doing them is this idea of power, I believe there's a gospel connection here. It's the power of the gospel. Elsewhere, the The apostle Paul talks about the gospel as being the power of God unto salvation.

Earlier in Ephesians, the apostle Paul is basically giving to them the gospel, and when he prays for them, he's praying gospel into them and remember when he talks about that they would, know what is the surpassing greatness of his power and he makes the connection between that power and the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And that is the power that is at work in us, allowing us to live in the life worthy of the manner with which we have been called as we get into Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 1.

Spiritual strength is accomplished by the spirit, and spiritual strength is to take place in the inner man. I did.

Sorry, rather than. That was a slip. God doesn't care as much about the outside of the cup. And sometimes we play this game of getting caught up with what's going on on the outside.

Oh, he drinks. Oh, he did this. Oh, she said that. I get people coming to me for counsel.

I could focus in on the externals. I can focus in on the do's and don'ts, but what I do? I try to bring them to the foot of the cross and give to them Jesus, because at the end of the day, that's what we all need. And what I do?

I try to get below the surface and seek to minister the gospel in the inner man, trusting that God by the Spirit will minister gospel truth to them, and I pray for them. And apart from that, there's absolutely nothing that I can do to help anyone. I cannot help anyone. I don't have the power in me.

No man alive has the power to transform an individual, but God does. And so we go, we, we go armed with the gospel and armed with prayer, and we use these resources and we seek to. to proclaim gospel and to pray gospel into the hearts of people and we minister to them as best as we can and we just trust that we ask the Lord, we trust the Lord that he will do the work and, Pastor Milton can attest to this, some of the other staff members and elders, I can attest to it. There is power.

In the gospel. Lives have been transformed. I have, we have observed marriages that were on the brink of absolute disaster restored, relationships reconciled. Through the power of the gospel.

So he's praying that, that God's people would be strengthened with power, gospel power by the Spirit and the inner man. And he is also praying for Christ to be indwelling. This is active. The word indwelling here is in the active voice.

It's, it's the idea that Christ is actively seeking to indwell. Now see, here's the, the thing is, is we know that the Spirit lives within us. It's not like we need what we already have. We know that Christ has taken up residence in us.

OK, it's not like he's praying that Christ would come into you. That's not what he's praying. The idea is this, that Christ would dwell. In your hearts through faith, to dwell has the idea of being at home.

That when he comes into the, into the, into your heart, so to speak, and when he looks around and, and when he studies the different rooms, as you will, that, that, that he, he sees that, that everything is in place. And what, and if it isn't in place, guess what? He himself praised God. He will see to it that he gets in there and he cleans up the messes that he sees, that Christ may dwell in your heart through faith, that he may actively dwell, and so he takes up residence, he makes himself at home, and if he needs to get up and clean up some messes, he'll do it.

Praise God that he ministers to us in such a way, because I'll tell you, I do not have the wisdom, the intelligence, the know-how. I do not have the capacity in and of myself to clean up the mess that is in me. OK, I need God. And I look over the course of my life and I see that at the end of the day it is God who has been at work in me to will and to do according to His good pleasure.

It is God. I'm not saying I don't have responsibility. Don't misunderstand me. I am not saying that I just let go and let God.

Don't misunderstand me. The apostle Paul would not say that. Yeah, he proclaims gospel truth, he prays it into the hearts of God's people, but he will eventually say, walk in a manner worthy. He will eventually say, husbands, love your wives as Christ loves the church.

He will say, wives, do the impossible, submit to your husbands and respect and honor your cracked vessel. Right? But you see, it's all in perspective. Everything is in proper place.

It's, it's gospel proclamation, gospel prayed into us, we lay hold of God, we see God, we're being strengthened with might by the Spirit and the inner man. Christ is in dwelling in this. And what, we get to the place where we can experience the love of God, the fullness of God. And so when he comes along and he says to the Ephesians, Walk in a manner worthy of the calling or when he, as we'll discover later, says pray.

That's not a burden. That's a delight. That's something that we're motivated to do. In light of gospel reality, and the light of experiencing the gospel.

This is why we must pray for one another, pray that we would see God, pray that he would strengthen us with might by the Spirit and the inner man, Christ and dwelling us through faith. Notice it's through faith. Through works, It's through faith. It's through trust in Him.

OK. And so he's praying for Christ to be in dwelling, and then he gets into the reasons. There's a few reasons that he provides us with this. The reason he's praying for the believers to be strengthened, the reason he's praying for Christ to be in dwelling, are as follows, he says, so that, OK, now before we get there, let me say this.

Paul, Paul has this, this vision for the Ephesians. By way of extension, God has a vision for us. As Paul goes on to pray, he's praying essentially that they would have the capability to understand and to know. Christ OK, he's praying for believers to understand and to know Christ.

OK, and then, and then he's gonna, he's gonna also sow that. They would experience the fullness of God. He's got this vision for the Ephesians, right? That