Immeasurably more than we can ask – Sunday 29th November 2015 – Month of prayer and giving guide

‘Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.’ (Ephesians 3:20-21)

Paul is devoted to prayer. This is because He sees that God is at work and can do great things as we ask Him.

As we have looked at these two prayers in Ephesians 1 & 3 it’s been striking that he has not asked for things that they probably needed: finances, protection, good health, a change in their corrupt Roman rulers etc. and no doubt he did pray these things at times. Paul prays for three things:

i)               To have accurate and experiential knowledge of God and His love by the Spirit.

ii)              To know the certainty of our great future hope and inheritance by the Spirit.

iii)            That we may become as like Jesus as possible by the Spirit.

As he closes his prayer, he expresses his confidence in God’s ability to answer and surpass as he says that, ‘He is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine…’ God can do more than we pray or imagine to pray for! This is because of the surpassing greatness of the power of the Holy Spirit who is at work in us.

Finally, Paul expresses the purpose for his prayers – that God be glorified. This is the great purpose of our lives and prayers – the glory of God!

As we seek God’s provision for our building project, our main need is not provision (although we do need this and should pray for it!); our first need is for the knowledge, the love, the hope, and transformative power of the Holy Spirit make us the sort of people, who, like Christ, will be generous.

You may want to pray something like this,

“Father, I thank you that you are able to do immeasurably more than all I ask or imagine, according to your power that is at work within me and your church. I pray that the Holy Spirit would increase my spiritual vision of you and your love; increase my love toward you that I may give generously out of trust and worship. To you be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen”

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The fullness of God– Saturday 28th November 2015 – Month of prayer and giving guide

‘And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.’ (Ephesians 3:17-19)

‘…that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.’

It is God’s will that we be mature, joyful and satisfied in our Christian lives. Too often we feel that God is withholding something from us and is reluctant to give it too us, that He is tight-fisted toward us. The devil may whisper such lies, as he did in the Garden, but God, our Father, wants 'fulness' for us!

This is the summit, of Paul’s prayer and our highest attainment in this world. How do we reach this zenith of being ‘filled to the measure of all the fullness of God’?

This is not about us becoming totally like God, that was the sin of Genesis 3!

There are many things that we could say about this passage and space does not allow me to say more than that it is about us becoming the kind of people that God wants us to be – as like Jesus, as it is possible to become.

We see something of the ‘fullness of God’ for us in passages like Galatians 5:22-23,

‘But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.’

The ‘fullness of God’ is about Him, by the Holy Spirit, imparting (putting in) to us His likeness for our joy and His glory. 

If we want to change and grow, as I’m sure we all do, the place to start is prayer- dependence not discipline! Come to the Father, ask for the empowering of the Holy Spirit, let your heart be drawn to Christ and gospel of grace; see again how you have been ‘rooted and established in love’, allow the Spirit to teach you how ‘high, wide, deep and long is the love of Christ’, and let this Jesus-defined love propel you into growth, into the ‘fullness of God’.

You may want to pray something like this,

“Father, fill me with the great power of your Holy Spirit that I may be able to comprehend the great love of Christ; I pray also that your great power would transform me into the ‘fullness’ that you want for me; that you would be pleased, that I may enjoy you, and that those around me will be drawn to you. Amen”

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Rooted and established in love – Friday 27th November 2015 – Month of prayer and giving guide

‘And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge…’ (Ephesians 3:17-19)

Paul uses two different illustrations to speak of God’s love:

i) ‘Rooted’ – which speaks of a great tree with deep, strong roots.

ii) ‘Established’ – alludes to a great, majestic, beautifully designed building like St. Paul’s.

These illustrations are similar in that they are both unshakeable; they are also very different: the tree is organic and living while the building is constructed, planned and well designed.

Because of God’s love we are unshakably ‘rooted’ into His life forever and our lives are well designed and planned by our Father.

We grow in the ‘soil’ of God’s love and we are built on the foundation of God’s love, our growth in joy and stability being radically affected by our understanding of God’s love for us and others.

This is true of all Christians, they are all ‘rooted and established in love’. But too often our comprehension of this is weak, we feel ourselves to be lifeless, blown around, shaken and insignificant etc. And so we need to take these words as objective – I am ‘rooted and established in love!’, and as something to be pursued – “I want to be ‘rooted and established’ in God’s love”.

Therefore Paul not only teaches these things, he also prays for us (and it’s a prayer that we can use) that, by the incomparable power of the Holy Spirit we,

“May have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge…”

Like a magnificent tree or building, God’s love in immeasurably wide, long, high and deep! We need the Spirit’s power to help us to grasp the ungraspable; that we may know and experience God’s love that ‘surpasses knowledge’!

Love is the aim and outcome of knowledge of God; we study and pray to learn more about God so that we can love Him more, and that through us, His love will demonstrated in the world; A lack of energy toward God in worship and toward people in evangelism, service, hospitality and generosity, is directly linked to a lack of experience of the love of God in the Spirit.

You may want to pray something like this,

“ Father, I thank you that I have been rooted and established in love. Please would you send the Holy Spirit on me again that I may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge;  and let my life become an overflow of the love of God toward me. Amen”

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Using true riches to gain true riches – Thursday 26th November 2015 – Month of prayer and giving guide

‘I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith…’ (Ephesians 3:16-17)

There are many precious things that Paul could plead with God for; but for Paul, his greatest ambition was to know, and for others to know Jesus.

The Father has ‘glorious riches’ and Paul prays that He would enrich us, make us spectacularly wealthy, with the knowledge of Jesus.

He has limitless strength and he prays that the Father would use it prise open our ‘inner being’ so that the immensity of Christ will dwell there.

The scope of Paul’s prayer is vast because of the immensity of the power at God’s disposal; the Spirit, who created the world and takes to irresistible action at God’s word, is able to enthrone Christ in a new a glorious way in our lives.

Paul is praying for us to love and possess true riches ­– Christ in you. When one knows Jesus as their treasure, all other wealth and ambition take their proper place and become available to be used for the glory of God.

You may want to pray something like this,

“Father, I pray that out of your glorious riches you may strengthen me and all at Community Church with power through your Spirit in our inner being, so that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith. Be our treasure and let all other possessions, gifts and dreams, fall away or be put to the use of glorifying your name. Amen”

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Reasons to kneel before the Father – Wednesday 25th November 2015 – Month of prayer and giving guide

‘For this reason I kneel before the Father,  from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. (Ephesians 3:14-15)

What can we learn from this?

1. He is talking about his prayers again – this repetition teaches the importance that he and we should place on prayer.
2. ‘For this reason…’ (see 1:15 also) is an expression that refers back to all that he said in chapter 2: Paul is confident to pray because God has chosen them and saved them in Christ.
3. He is ‘kneeling’ – this is a physical expression of worship, earnestness, submission and dependence.
4. He is praying to the ‘Father’ – an expression of the confidence he has to be heard because he has been adopted into the family of God.
5. He uses this interesting phrase ‘from whom every family in heaven and on earth…’ this is an expression of our unity with all Christians on the earth and those who are in heaven – we share the same Father. Paul uses this to bolster our confidence in prayer: the ‘Father’ is very attentive to our prayers for the family.
6. And this family ‘…derives its name’ from the Father; this is an expression of the great security, dignity and responsibility that all Christians now have: we share the name of God as members of His family – as Christians our family name has changed! This means we are loved and so can pray with confidence; it is also a responsibility never to do anything that would bring dishonour the name of God.

Thinking about the gospel (‘for this reason’), your posture (kneeling etc.); thinking about whom you are praying to (the Father); and for whom you are praying (God’s and our family when praying for Christians) are great ways to fuel our praying.

Take a moment to pray and arrange your praying like this:

• Try kneeling, or raising your hands, or having an open bible in your hands etc - a physical demeanor that expresses rest, worship and submission.
• Remember the gospel for you and Community Church (maybe use Ephesians 2:1-8 to help you).
•  Thank God for your adoption and that of the church into His family (See Ephesians 2:17-19)
• Now pray for provision, generosity and wisdom for yourself and the church during this month of prayer and giving.

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