Inner Strength to Make Christ Known

If you would take your Bibles, please, and turn to Ephesians chapter 3 verse 14. Ephesians 3:14, and following to the end of the chapter is where we're going to be starting today's work. And if I was to finish this text, we'd probably be here till tonight, so I'll get as far as we possibly can. For the subject at hand, it is praying for inner strength to make Christ known. Inner strength to make Christ known. It takes an element of holy boldness to share the gospel and even to make disciples to continue in Christ, and Christ emboldens us by the power of the Holy Spirit to do that. Today I want to speak to you about inner strength to make Christ known.

Ephesians chapter 3 and verses 14 and following. Read with me if you would. This is from the New American Standard Translation. The Bible says, "For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, 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 with all of the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God, and now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly and beyond all than we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forevermore and evermore, amen."

This is a prayer for the Ephesian church, and obviously this circulatory letter was intended to be read out loud, and therefore this prayer was not essentially to be copied and pasted verbatim, but the concepts in it you should make for yourselves. And so you should take the ideas that are brought up in this wonderful prayer and do it for yourselves as well, but it's not the only prayer for the Ephesian church. Turn to chapter 1 if you would. I want you to see the first prayer in Ephesians.

Chapter 1, verse 15 to the end of that chapter is the first prayer that Paul offers for the congregation. He says, "For this reason," chapter 1, verse 15, "I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus, which exists among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you while making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. And I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of His glory and His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward 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 the right hand of the Lord in heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all."

Now the sister epistle to Ephesians is Colossians. In turn, I want to show you another prayer that Paul prays for the church in Colossians chapter 1. Chapter 1 verses 9 to 14 is a prayer for the Colossian church, and you're going to see a lot of the concepts repeated again, that which he's already prayed for the Ephesian church. In Colossians chapter 1 verse 9 it says, "For this reason I also, since the day we heard of it, have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all power according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience, joyously giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light, for He rescued us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son in whom we have redemption for the forgiveness of sins."

And so you see just three prayers here. Back to Ephesians chapter 3 for our text if you would, and all of the wonderful things that the Apostle Paul prays for the local church. And so I hope that you would go back and make these prayers your own and go line by line and pray for the local church in a similar fashion. I think you'll find your prayer life being diversified, being enriched. I think that it'll even be deepened as you go person by person and concept for concept, and perhaps we will lengthen our prayers as well and do the same as what the Apostle Paul has done, and that when he was writing this epistle was overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit to even bow down on his knees and pray while he was penning the Ephesian letter. And so I pray as well for us that we would be overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit of God as we are perhaps lifting up the saints and talking about evangelism and discipleship and conferences and Bible study groups and all the wonderful things that are going on here at the church. I pray that as you are talking and building up one another in Christ that you're just overwhelmed by all that God is doing and that you also would bow down and just start praying on the spot because this is something that has happened to the Apostle Paul.

In chapter 3 and verse 1 he says, "For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the sake of you Gentiles," and it's almost like as if he pauses for a second and gives more information before he bows to the Lord in prayer in verse 14. And so this is something that all scholars agree upon, that he was intending from the very beginning starting in verse 3 to bow and pray. But before he would reverently bow in prayer he wanted to give some more information. We've just gone verse by verse through this information and now we come to the text here in verse 14. "For this reason I bow my knees before the Father in prayer." And if he was to simply go — and think with me on the concepts of the rest of this, think with me on this point — in that Paul is praying predominantly for the local church here to be inwardly strong so that they can spread the grace of God. In verse 16 he's praying that they would be strengthened inwardly so that God's power would be in them inwardly. That is a key concept in this prayer. And then in verse 17 Paul is praying for the Ephesian church that Christ would dwell in their hearts. And then in verse 17b, "to continue being rooted and grounded in love." And then in verses 18 and 19 it says, "to comprehend the love of Christ," which seems to be incomprehensible. And then in verse 19b, "to be filled with God." And so this is a stout prayer and I think that we would do well to mimic it.

But Paul's prayers here lead us to know that we need to pray for people inwardly. And perhaps we're accustomed to taking prayer requests and praying for the sick and praying for those who are going through struggles, trials in this life, and that's great. But I want to show you today from the text that we need not only to pray for people on the outward level and circumstantially, but pray for them inwardly to be strengthened by God in all of these different ways. This is an amazing prayer here. This prayer is truly something that you're tapping into the riches of God's grace, which cannot be drained. And so you have access to the riches of God's grace and Paul is now drawing from God's grace and asking Him to strengthen the local church.

Why so? Well, back up with me in verse 13. He says, "Therefore I ask you not to lose heart in my tribulations on your behalf for they are your glory." Now I'm interested in this because Paul says twice that he is a prisoner of the Lord in this wonderful epistle. Twice he says this. Chapter 4 verse 1 says, "Therefore I am a prisoner of the Lord." And then again in chapter 3 verse 1, "For this reason I am a prisoner of the Lord." And now before he starts this prayer, he says, "Therefore I ask you not to lose heart in my tribulations." He's referring to this imprisonment and it is most likely that Paul brings up this phrase because he has many who are opposing the cause of Christ, who are trailing him around and causing him problems.

It's very likely here that Paul is saying, for the reason of the cause of Christ to spread the glory of God, share the gospel, and make disciples — it's for the reason that there are opposers — that he said this. And the reason why is because the opposers would say, "See," and make an accusation about Paul being in prison as if he did something wrong and broke the law and now he's in jail. "See? Paul. He is no man of God. He's in prison." And so these general accusations and these flippant comments from perhaps the Judaizers and perhaps those who would worship at the temple of Diana and engage in temple prostitution and love their sin and not want to repent of that and go to a real church — perhaps these accusers of the brethren were strong against Paul to the point to where he would have to say, "I'm in prison," and it's very unique on how he talks about this idea of being in a dual fashion, which we are very accustomed to in biblical language, using a concept in a twofold way so that the spiritual ones would understand what he's truly saying.

He is imprisoned. Yes, he's in Rome, and yes, he's in prison, but he's more so imprisoned to Christ. He's imprisoned to spread this gospel. He is so captivated with Christ that it is as if he is imprisoned. He is a bought and paid for slave of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he says, "I am a prisoner of the Lord." People know he's in prison in Rome, but he says, "Ha, got you. I'm a prisoner of the Lord, not a prisoner as if my accusers would say." And so Paul's opponents accused him of errors such that he was imprisoned for whatever they would make up about him. But I would say to you this, that Paul was accustomed to false accusations. Would you say so? Paul was accustomed to the turmoil that comes with sharing the gospel. The same way as Abel experienced Cain's opposition, the same way that in the book of Jude he talks about how those who try to creep into the church and cause divisions among the brethren in Jude 1:16.

And the same way David experienced opposition from his own son Absalom, the same way that Elijah had a Jezebel, the same way that the disciples were all faced with opposition and were martyred, the same way as Moses had Jannes and Jambres as those who opposed him, the same way as Nehemiah had Tobiah and Sanballat in Nehemiah 6:12, those who severely opposed the work of God. The same way Jesus had Judas, the same way as the Apostle John had Diotrephes in 3 John 1:9. Now Paul is experiencing some opposition and he clarifies for the church of God that this is fine. They can call me a prisoner for whatever, but I'm saying to you, I'm a prisoner of the Lord. And so perhaps you as a church would get used to and accustomed to false accusations because they're going to keep coming. We have an evil one. He is a slanderer, he is an accuser of the brethren, and that's simply called being a Christian.

Aristotle said this, and I don't agree with everything that he said, but if you would avoid criticism, be nothing, say nothing, and do nothing. And I'm saying to you, if you want to apply those types of general concepts to Christianity, then you would have to avoid sharing the gospel and making disciples. You would have to avoid what it is to be known as a Christian. You would then therefore not speak; you'd be silenced. And Paul said I will not shrink back.

So we're to declare everything that is profitable and Paul here comes right out of the gates before he's praying and he's saying, listen, this is what is true. I know that you get it because these underlying truths are always going to be. In verse 15, I want to add a little bit of weight to this concept. In verse 15, chapter 3 verse 15 it says, "From whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name."

Now if one of Paul's accusers was to have got a copy of this letter and analyzed it looking to find a fault, they would say something like this: "You see, Paul, he's a universalist. Look — from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. Is everybody a child of God? Is everybody saved and going to heaven? Paul's a universalist." And so if you want to examine someone's life or what they write or what they say or what they do and try to find a fault, I promise you you can find a fault. But it's not exactly what the context is saying. It's not what the life is projecting. It's not the intent of the author. It's not authorial intent. Paul is on a whole different sheet of music. But if you cherry pick or extract something and twist it and throw it back at someone, then that is an accuser of the brethren and not one who was taking it in full context.

The very opposite is happening in the text here where Paul is praying for the people. His heart is to lift them up and to encourage them in Christ and to direct them in Christ and he doesn't want any divisions among the brethren. He wants unity in Christ and so he's praying for them. And so it's most important then that we would do all things for the glory of God.

I see Paul here is reverent. I want you to see point number one: that we must be reverent. We must be reverent. I believe that Paul is demonstrating this by the fact that he mentions that he bows his knees. And this is intentional reverence. I believe that Paul actually bowed down at this point. Personally, you can differ with me — as a little nuance, it doesn't really matter. Most importantly what really matters is that the posture of his heart was reverent before the Lord and he makes that obvious here in verse 14. "For this reason, the fact that he's in prison and for the reason and the fact that he's going to share Christ and encourage the saints to make Christ known, to be strengthened inwardly for this grand purpose of the gospel, for this reason I bow my knees before the Father."

And so this is intentional reverence and the God who created the heavens and the earth is giving Paul the ability to project publicly his reverence. And I think that we live in a day where reverence is being diminished. Do you see it as well? The attire of the preachers is being diminished and they can come out somehow and represent a holy God in flip-flops and a t-shirt on a Sunday morning. I don't think that that's reverent, folks. I think that we can show more reverence by doing our best. I think that's a thing with removing pulpits from churches. I think that that's irreverent. We see in the demonstration of this from Ezra and Nehemiah how they had a wooden stand on a platform. The removal of crosses and no longer calling places of worship a sanctuary, removing crosses to where the offensive cross is removed and it's just a building. Nevertheless, the purpose behind preaching gutted, the purpose behind worship gutted, short, shallow, simple prayers, treating the ordinances flippantly. Anybody can take communion. It's not guarded. It's not done reverently. The diminishing of the local church, the diminishment of the gospel, easy-believism — it just goes on and on and on.

And I think that we as people of God have to remember that we need to be demonstrating reverence for God publicly in all areas of life. And if we are truly to be salt and light for a lost world, then they have to see something different about us so that it causes them to want to know why. The why behind the what. And so if you are a chameleon and you're blending in and you're not in any way showing reverence to God, if you're not praying before your meals in public at a restaurant, if you're not handing out gospel tracts, if you're not living out loud in the areas that God has used you in your life to be bright, then I would say, lift Him back up and put God first in your life and then make Him known.

This is the prayer. The heart behind the prayer here is that the Ephesian church would be strengthened inwardly by the Holy Spirit so that they can make Christ known. And so we need to do this as well. It's very probable that Paul was bowing down on his knees. You know that he was an Old Testament scholar. In Psalm chapter 95 verse 6 it says, "Come, let us worship and bow down and let us kneel before the Lord our Maker, for He is our God."

If the Muslims can bow down towards Mecca three, six, eight, ten, however many times a day that they do, then folks, I think that we need to live out loud in such a way that we are making Christ known. If the Jehovah's Witnesses can be on campus at UCF and hand out their literature, then Christians had better be giving the answer as well.

If the Islamic faith can hand out free Qurans every single day at UCF, then our presence must be known. We must not be hidden. We must be that lamp on a hill. We must be in public on display daily as dynamic disciples — not shrinking back, not hiding within ourselves, but to be bold. You see, all of the characters throughout the entire Bible who faced opposition were living boldly for their faith, so much so that nearly all of the disciples were martyred, save John, and he was boiled in oil. I don't know what would be better, to die or be boiled. But nevertheless, they lived out loud with their faith and we need to be doing that.

And if you would get behind the scenes and pray deeply and pray for the brethren, I think that evangelism and discipleship is something that needs not only to have a prayer warrior who is doing the preaching and the evangelizing and the discipling. Not only should that person be prayed up, but according to Colossians chapter 4 and verse 3, we need to have people praying for us. Those of us who are evangelizing and discipling are waging war against an evil one who is holding on to a lost soul with all of evil's might. And you are trying to rip a lost soul out of evil's grip. That's war, my friend. I know what you equate with spiritual warfare, but that's war — trying to bring a lost soul from darkness into the light. When you're preaching the gospel and giving someone an answer to come out of that, you're faced off with evil and all of the evil angels as well. And so those who would go into darkness and try to snatch them from the flames, we need to pray for them.

And so twofold: not only should the person be prayed up, but we have to have people praying for that person. Colossians chapter 4 verse 3, Paul requests that the Colossian church would pray for him, that they would make the word clear and that God would open doors for that. That's so important. And so not only that, but in our own prayer life, to be praying that they would be strengthened inwardly by the power of the Holy Spirit to make Christ known. It takes a lot of inner strength and boldness to be able to do these types of things. And God gives that evangelist, God gives that proclaimer — whether you're a mother, whether you're a father, or whether you're a little kid in school around your friends in the neighborhood — God gives that person inner strength to do that.

Don't we need to pray for our children that they would remain steadfast and strong and always abounding in the work of the Lord and not being caught off guard and taken behind closed doors in a neighbor's house and being shown pornography on a phone? Don't we need to pray for our children to be able to have the inner strength to say no to evil? Don't we need to pray for our children to be empowered by the Holy Spirit to be able to be Christians — mere Christianity? I think so. I think that we need to have spiritual prayers for people to be strengthened inwardly, to know the love of Christ, to be filled with the fullness of God as this prayer demonstrates. We need to be reverently doing this.

And so how else would you be reverent to the Lord in your prayer? I would say not only is it public, but it is also private. In fact, it must be private. I'm not talking about private in your prayer closet, yes, but also in your private homes. Fathers, listen.

If your children do not see a very consistent life in Christ, inwardly they will feel that you may not be the real deal and it diminishes your influence. It diminishes Christ in their minds. And so we must be ones — fathers, listen to me. You must pray with your wife and children. You must pray in your private homes. You must take, like how Paul is praying for the church, which basically is his family — not having a wife and children, Paul equated Titus and Timothy as his own children, Titus 1:4, "mine own child."

Paul equated those disciples as his children. He equated the church as his family.

And so, fathers, pray like Paul prayed for the church, but for your own family. Take these concepts, open the Bible, sit down with your kids and say, "I'm going to pray for you. I'm going to pray for you. I'm going to lift you up in Christ and I'm going to pray for me that I would measure up as well." There's nothing wrong with being transparent with your children. In fact, I would say you'd gain credibility with your spouse and your children if you are transparent and say, "Daddy hasn't always measured up. Boy, Daddy's trying and I want to be on display and mark it in your mind that I am making a very genuine effort to mature my faith and to grow in Christ. And I hope you see that and follow likewise."

I think that that is superbly important for us to be able to copy and paste what Paul is doing for the church and take it into our own lives and to express reverence by bowing down. You tell your children, "I want to bow down and I want to pray with you." Publicly, you see that Daniel 6:10 says that Daniel had his windows open towards Jerusalem and he continued kneeling on his knees three times a day praying and giving thanks before God as he had been doing previously. The regular pattern of Daniel's life was to pray publicly. So guys, how's your prayer life?

Public, private, and then like super private. I don't like it in the middle of the night when you can't sleep because your back is aching. How's your prayer life? Your prayer life is forever, like, for those who are upper in age. I got a lot of aches. My prayer life is high. I'm doing good.

Pray for people. That's good. Well, how about with your family and how about for your local church? I think we see this clearly as an application for this.

Now in Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 15, it says, "From whom every family in heaven on earth derives its name." This is just simply a wordplay and the original hearers would have heard this. We don't hear that because — unless anybody in here, I don't know about, can speak Greek fluently. I have to look up every word and be diligent to study the word of God and rightly divide it. But this wordplay between father and family in verses 14 and 15, Paul's original hearers would have naturally caught this.

And so the fatherhood of God and the fatherhood in his family helps us to see that the family's identity is from God. The very conception and idea of the nuclear family is an idea of God. We are demonstrating that there is a God who created the family when we act as a biblical family. When we are married, when we have children, and when we have this structure, it is by God's design. It's not a human concept and it cannot be changed. It's not a human concept at all and therefore it is not to be done in a humanistic way apart from God. And so fatherhood comes from God and families come from God. So every family in existence gives an indication that there is a God. That's what He designed. Just as the calendar indicates when Christ was born by the very nature of the date it points to Christ, by the very nature of the family unit it points to God and His existence and His design. And just as God names Adam and Eve, so now parents do likewise and name their children — it simply points to God's grand design in all kinds of different ways. And so the source is God.

And so Paul is not preaching universalism in verse 15 right here, "From whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name." The name of family is its identity in God and God's idea and design of family. So every family indicates that there is a God. And like I said already, you cannot change that.

Humanistic ideas such as polyamorous parenting in the LGBTQ community would change or pervert the idea of family. And that is no family. That is no marriage. God's design can't be changed. And so we want to graciously and lovingly offer repentance for those who have changed God's design and tried to go down a path that is not going to be blessed in the end, and hope that the rebellious would repent of that sin and see God's design in Scripture and then follow through with that. This is truly praying for deeper things. And as such, Paul would be praying for deeper things here for the church. We need to as well.

I also want you to see in verse 16 that it's the Spirit of God that imparts the strength. The Spirit imparts strength. And as we're praying for inner beings — our fellow family members and our fellow church members — to be strengthened inwardly, it's by the power of the Holy Spirit. In Zechariah chapter 4 and verse 6 it says, "Not by power nor by strength but by the Spirit of God." And so it's by the Spirit, it's not by your power, it's not by your strength, it's by the Holy Spirit's power that anyone would be strengthened inwardly.

In verse 16 it says, "That He would grant you according to the riches of His glory to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man." And so God's resources, such as His rich grace that's mentioned here in the text, are immeasurable. His grace is forever and ever and it's eternal, just like Himself. And so think about God's grace and His riches and whom Paul is drawing from, and he wants to go into this storehouse and ask God to say, "From these gifts, from these riches, can You take and bestow some of these upon the brothers and sisters who need them in Christ?" Paul is going to the Father and he's saying, "You have all of this — these needs, these gifts, these strengths, these abilities. If You, God, would benevolently bestow upon the ones who need it, then they can make it. They can survive."

"God, I want to see marriages stronger — help. Lord, I want to see the lost saved — help. From Your riches, from Your storehouse, would You bestow upon the brothers and sisters in Christ within the local church, would You help?" And is he simply envisioning the riches of God in the limitless storehouse that's available, God as a benevolent Father absolutely wanting to bestow these wonders upon people? Psalm 24:1 says, "The earth is the Lord's and all it contains, the world and those who dwell in it." Psalm 135:6 says, "Whatever the Lord pleases, He does." And so if you believe in a good God — and, no, you do — then ask upon who God is, the goodness and the benevolence of a gracious and wonderful God. Based upon His unlimited riches, would You take and bestow inner strength upon the brother who's struggling, dear God? Name that person, name the situation and ask, by the power of the Holy Spirit, would You do this inwardly? Pray for people inwardly, not just externally. Now if I break a bone or have outward pain, yes, pray for me.

But I would prefer inward prayers, inward strength to be able to stand in a day of attack, to be able to stand and preach God's word. I would pray for, I would ask for your prayers inwardly before I would externally. And so God's own infinite fullness is abundant. Picture this. Imagine a warehouse beside your house and the fact that you perhaps would know the owner. And he's a gracious man. He's got plenty, plenty of money. He's lived his whole life and he's got more resources in this warehouse than he could ever utilize or give away or sell. And he doesn't need the money, he doesn't need the items in it. He's got more than he'll ever use. And you call him and you ask him for an item that he has on the shelf somewhere in this large warehouse. And he replies, "Yeah, I have that up on the shelf." And you share with him a need.

Would not a gracious man who has more than enough be willing to take a small little item on his warehouse shelf and then give it to one who is in need? I think so. And so he would reply, "Yeah, I've got plenty. In fact, I don't even know how many thousands and thousands of those items I have. In fact, let me deliver that item to the person in need." I think that's what the owner next door at some large factory would say. And do you not think that God is greater than a mere man?

Do you not think that God is gooder? My wife's going to hate me for that, but it makes sense.

God is great and His marvelous grace is something that He wants to pour out. And somehow, some way, prayer works. And if we were to be people of prayer and pray for people, then I believe that we would see that our inner man can be renewed and restored and strengthened. 2 Corinthians 4:16 says, "Our inner man is being renewed day by day." And so you could pray for God's greatness and in His greatness to bestow His generosity upon those who need it. He can bestow His resources upon those who need it. And you can see your brothers and sisters strengthened in Christ.

This inner being — what is it? As a faithful Bible student, you should ask yourself, "What is the inner being?" And there are different philosophies throughout the world. And if you were here last Wednesday night to hear Elder David Parker teach on the different ideas that have been throughout church history — in fact, we have a trichotomy or a dichotomy — what is the inner being? What is the makeup of man? What is anthropology? Well, you would have heard clearly that the Bible supports the fact that we are a dichotomy. And so what that means is we are both an external and an internal being, a physical and an invisible being. We have the flesh, but we also have the inner being. What is the inner being according to this text? It's the heart, soul, and mind.

You're praying for your fellow brothers and sisters to be strengthened in their heart and in their soul and in their mind. A Hebraic understanding of anthropology is holistic, as in those are one idea. A Greek philosophy of the human being would separate them all up. And I think you would probably recognize that we have a lot of Greek philosophy in our American understanding of life. But if we were to truly rightly divide the word of God and understand life from a biblical worldview, you would see what I just said is true. And now you know how to pray better for the inner being of your spouse, of your children, and of the church.

And so Paul goes on to ask that God would strengthen the heart, soul, mind, and strength. In Mark chapter 12 verse 30, Jesus said, "Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength." So heart, soul, mind, and strength. Those two things there. I want to give you some take-home truths now as we wrap up today and come back and hopefully finish this prayer next week.

Some take-home truths from this text that you can apply to your life: number one, proclaiming and praying go together. So Paul is both proclaiming the gospel publicly. He's proclaiming the gospel by writing the Ephesian epistle. He's proclaiming the gospel. But he has intentionally coupled that with prayer. And so we need to be a people of prayer who couple both proclaiming and praying. And so for you, if you were to respond to the ideas of this text, then you would specifically and intentionally find ways to increase your prayer life and increase how much you spread the gospel and proclaim Christ. So you see that Paul in his prayers here is not only just proclaiming the gospel, but he is praying that the church would spread the gospel as well.

Point number two is that we need to raise the standard of prayer. We need to raise the standard. In Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 14, it says, "For this reason I bow my knees before the Father." And we live in a day where Jesus is your homeboy and you sing to Him like He's an erotic boyfriend. This is a perversion and a low level idea of who God really is. But when we recognize who God really is, you have a higher view of God and a lower view of yourself. And like John the Baptist said, "He must increase and I must decrease." And when you have a good understanding of how human you really are and how silly our ideas can really be and how foolish our emotions can really be and untrustworthy — according to Jeremiah 17:9, "The heart is a deceiver and desperately wicked, who can trust it?" — when you understand who you really are from a biblical worldview, then all of a sudden it's not hard at all to submit to the standard of God's word. It's not hard to submit to the authority of God. It's not hard to say, "Okay, Lord, the situation that I'm in — I want to do this, but Your word says this." When you have a high view of yourself, you do it your way.

Some of you are singing, "I did it my way." Frank Sinatra. But when you have a high view of God, you do it God's way, no matter how hard it is. Let me ask you a question.

If you are offended by a brother or a sister in your family or in your church or in your community, do you handle it your way, perhaps by reclusing and not addressing it and maybe letting it fester and get worse, maybe finding others to have a pity party with you? Do you handle it your way? Or according to the first commandment toward the local church that Jesus gave in chapter 18 of Matthew, Matthew 18:15, do you go to the brother in private and share that with them and you talk it through with the hope of reconciliation to win a brother over? The harder way is God's way. It's always that way.

It's always that way. The military has a good phrase: the hard right over the easy wrong. And so it's harder to do the right thing than to do the wrong thing. It's easy to gossip. It's easy to be angry. It's easy not to pray. It's easy not to share the gospel. It's easy to be selfish.

But if you would discipline yourself and raise the standard to a godly standard, have the Word of God as your standard, then all of a sudden things change and you embrace the difficulties. 1 Timothy 4:7 says to discipline yourself for the purposes of godliness. And so godliness — the way you get there is through personal disciplines, biblical disciplines. By the way, we are finite. God's ways are not our ways. I don't think that you would have sent your child to the cross to die for others' filthy sins. That's just — who would have thought of that? God's ways are so much higher and so much grander and so much more wonderful, and the way of the cross is the way. It is the way. Take up your cross and follow Christ.

So raise the standard and your alignment to the Word of God will enrich your Christlikeness. Your alignment with the Word of God will enrich your marriage. It'll enrich your parenting. It'll enrich your evangelism and your discipleship and your outward life and your living, your public display of God's grace. So alignment in all areas is truly important and as you do that, you're raising the standard of life, especially in the area of prayer.

Point number three, my last point for a take-home truth — my way of application — is that we should pray for people's inner being to be strengthened, their heart, soul, and mind to be renewed. The psalmist said, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me." How many people fall away from the Word of God and fall into the traps of the world? I like to think of Satan's traps as like bear traps. He doesn't set mouse traps for Christians. His aim is John 10:10, "to steal, kill and destroy." He sets bear traps. I mean, he sets things to where he wants to destroy your life. He wants to rip carnage. He wants to defile the brethren. He wants to tear and destroy. He wants to annihilate. That's his end game and he's got a lot of power and a lot of resources to do that.

And so we need to pray that our inner beings would be strengthened. If we fall away from the Lord and we fall into these traps, we need prayer for restoration. We need the brothers and sisters in Christ acting like the loving church to wrap their loving arms and to bring them back closer to the Lord. We need to help one another. We've got to be there for one another. When one of us falls, you don't point your finger and say, "You shouldn't have done that." Well, they know that. They've got a conscience. What they need is restoration. What they need is love. What they need is guidance. What they need — you know, the Bible says in Ephesians 4:32, "to forgive as you have been forgiven."

And that's important because as we view one another, we don't view one another as already sanctified and perfect. We view one another like we view ourselves. We're imperfect and we need God's grace. We need one another. We need strengthening of the brethren. We need to meet together. We need to fellowship together. We need to pray for one another. We need to worship God together. We need to learn from God's Word together. The design of the local church is brilliant. The ingredients of the local church — fellowship, prayer, the apostles' teaching, the ordinances, giving — in Acts 2, verses 40 and following, you have the ingredients of the local church.

And ladies, if you have like this perfect secret ingredient to, I don't know, cornbread or whatever, that's great. You know, a pinch of this, a lot of that, whatever. But God has the ingredients for the local church and those truly equal all that you need. And so faithfulness to God's number one plan is essential because when all of these areas are activated, it equals God's will being worked out in your life. God's glory and His will for you. It's wonderful. And so part of this is praying for one another to be strengthened in their inner being.

In Psalm chapter 23, the Bible says that "He leads me beside quiet waters and He restores my soul." How many times do you think that Paul needed his soul restored after he had some run-ins with opposition? Plenty, right? And we have that in life. This life is not perfect. If anything, you can look out there and you can say, wow, where is the remnant? It's so small. We're so few. We're so few as Christians. And as you go throughout your work week, throughout the week, you're interacting with mostly those who are lost. We've got to come back to the local church and be strengthened. And then throughout the week, we've got to be praying for one another to have a strong prayer life, to help ask God to renew and to restore our inner being and to strengthen us.

You know, Paul had a daily concern for the churches in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 and verse 28, and it was heavy for him. 2 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 28, Paul confesses that the daily concern for all the churches was really heavy upon his heart. How did he handle that? I think you have seen today in the text that he prays for those local congregations. He prayed for the Colossian church. He prayed for the church in Ephesus. He was a man of prayer. And so if you were to be one who would be concerned about anybody or any other churches — there's a lot of churches that are going by the wayside, unfortunately — if you're concerned about those types of things, then pray for those churches in this scriptural way. And the same thing for people: pray for them in this inner being way.

So pray for people's inner being to be strengthened. Pray that your inner prayer life with the Lord would be something that you are not only reverently and verbally expressing, but that you would be muttering on the inside throughout your day, that you would be praying without ceasing, the Bible says in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 17. Pray without ceasing, right? And if you're doing this, then you're bringing glory to God. And essentially, let me read those first two verses to you there. It's very important because this is how we quench not the Holy Spirit.

If you're going to rejoice always and pray without ceasing, then you will do what verse 18 says: "In everything give thanks for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit." This is important. Okay, Paul being a man of prayer, he was able to say, "Pray without ceasing." Now obviously, you're not going to reverently pray on your knees out loud, hands together, looking to the Lord all day every day without ceasing. And so there is an inner prayer life of Christians who are in communion with God as they go throughout the day. It's not just while you're driving or at a stoplight. It is truly interacting with the Lord and praying without ceasing, like as if you are just breathing. It's part of what you do. It's part of your life.

And so the Bible says, "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit." The fastest way to quench the Spirit is to be ungrateful. And one of the ways that we are ungrateful, that I believe quenches the Spirit, is that when we're faced with a trial, when we're faced with a circumstance, we're not grateful for that. We're actually blaming God for it. And one of the main corrections of prayer that needs to happen publicly among Christendom today is not to be guilty of praying away the sicknesses in all of our family members and all of our friends. God works through sicknesses oftentimes. And I think I need to expound upon this because it's such a change.

Before we close, turn to James chapter 5 verse 16. What a huge misconception about prayer in our recent days. In James chapter 5 and verse 16 it says, "Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much."

Most of us have gone through our life anointing one another with oil and praying in the Spirit and asking God, "You be healed of cancer. You be healed of the sickness" — all these different things, all these different elements. But that's not the real point of this passage. Let's back up to verse 13.

The point of this passage — suffering — is: if any one of you is suffering, actually the point of this passage is sin. "If any one of you is suffering, then he must pray. If anyone is cheerful, he is to sing praises. Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church." Now what's the point of praying for the sick here in this passage? In verse 14, keep reading with me: "And they are to pray over him anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick. The Lord will raise him up and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven, and therefore confess your sins one to another and pray for one another so that you may be healed, and the effective prayer of a righteous person can accomplish much."

What if God is using sickness to bring someone to repentance and you're trying to pray away the sickness? It may be better to say, "Lord, use this sickness in whatever way would bring You glory." Not that every sickness is because someone has sinned — that is what the Pharisees believed. Every sickness is not due to sin. But sickness oftentimes is used by God in His ways that are not our ways to spread the word more than could ever be possible otherwise.

Sickness oftentimes is something that we think is the enemy right away and we want to pray it away and we want to pound ourselves with antibiotics and medicines and all that kind of stuff. "Get it away from me, get it away from me." That is an American worldview of sickness — to protect your comfort and to keep you as the god of your own life.

But if you were to understand prayerfully these different subcategories, one of them being sickness, then you would humbly say, "Lord, this is not desirable. Have Thine own way. Teach me, O Lord. Show me Your ways. Utilize this for Your glory." And guess what? It may not even be — most likely would not even be — about you. Your sickness may not even be about you. It may be what God wants to do through you.

And we pray, "Lord, use me." We don't understand that it's by the way of the cross. Take up your cross and follow Him. Die unto yourself daily. God uses things for His glory. And God claims that. In Psalm 135:6, "Whatever the Lord pleases, He does in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all the deeps, He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth." Even down to verse 8 when he says he smote the firstborn of Egypt — did God not have greater purposes in mind for those parents who lost their firstborn?

So by way of application, I think from this text that we can see that we need to be proclaiming and praying together, raise the standard of prayer to a standard of scriptural reverence, and then pray for people's inner strength to be strengthened in a way that is glorifying to the Lord.

Let's pray together.

Lord, thank You for today's message and how we've examined it to the best of our ability from the standpoint of Paul praying for the Ephesian church and how we can take those same concepts and apply them to our life. God, I pray that if anyone here has never been saved by Your good grace, I pray that You would draw them into sorrowfulness of their sin and that that would, according to 2 Corinthians 7:10, lead them through godly sorrow to repentance and salvation. I pray, Father, that You grant them repentance as they are reflecting upon how their sin has put You, a Holy One, on the cross and that therefore You suffered and bled and died and were scorned and rejected by men for the payment of their sin. And I pray, Father, as they are drawn into repentance, that You would continue to work out Your salvation in their life and that they would publicly confess You as Lord and believe in their heart that You died and rose again for their sin and that they would be publicly baptized. I pray, Father, that as they demonstrate what has happened inwardly to them, that they would proclaim it publicly and outwardly through baptism. And I pray as well, Lord, that You would enable them to not only become a member of this dear church but that You would help them, dear Jesus, to study the Bible and go forth and make disciples. God, we love You. We pray for the lost that they would be saved. We also pray for the saved that they would be sanctified that You may be further glorified. It's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen.