PAUL’S “DEFAULT SETTING”

Ephesians 3:14-19 (KJV)

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 comprehend 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 with all the fulness of God.

If I may, I want to refresh your minds about what has happened thus far in this chapter.

Paul has been captured and placed in prison in Rome and it is because of the mystery that he revealed in Ephesians chapter two, the nature of the New Testament church.

The cause of his imprisonment was just but the risk that believers would faint out of the way because of it was still very real. So Paul had offered to them practical reasons they ought not to faint:

• ·   He was only a man, not to focus of their faith
• ·   His message was not bound even though he was and
• ·God’s will had been accomplished through it all

In a sense each of these reasons is an appeal to logic.

Paul admitted as much when, in verses 13, he said, “Wherefore I desire…”

·   He knew he could not demand or command them to not faint.

·   He knew that he could not insist they not faint

·   He knew he could not “logic them” strong in the faith

So Paul did what Paul was so very apt to do, he prayed.

I am calling prayer, Paul’s Default Setting.

Notice with me,

I. HOW HE PRAYED

Vs 14

I bow my knees…

I don’t want to make more of this than I should but neither do I want to ignore it.

John Gill says, “…the gesture he used in prayer was bowing the knees; a man is not tied to any particular gesture or posture in prayer, the main thing is the heart; mere postures and gestures are insignificant things with God; though where the mind is affected, the body will be moved; and this gesture may be expressive of reverence, humility, and submission in prayer…”

I am in complete agreement that no one should feel “tied” to any one posture while praying.

·   King David prayed while lying in his bed

·   Joseph prayed, if you will, while wrestling the angel of God

·   Nehemiah breathed a word of prayer while standing before the king of Babylon

There have been genuine and, I am sure, effective prayers while fighting in a foxhole.

Some mothers I am sure offered effectual fervent prayers while tending to their ill little baby.

I have prayed:

·   While staring intently at a bead of molten medal under a welding hood.

·   While sitting in a doctor’s reception room as my wife had our newborn in for a check up. I sat out there because I was so burdened and depressed I could not muster the energy to walk any further.

I have prayed:

·   At the bedside of a loved one while we watched their life ebb away from them

The posture of the body is in no sense an essential in prayer.

It is just not.

But I also agree with Gill when he writes, “… though where the mind is affected, the body will be moved; and this gesture may be expressive of reverence, humility, and submission in prayer…”

I do not believe that we have to pray on our knees but I would challenge the person who will not pray on their knees.

The Hebrew word for bowing the knees in the Old Testament, barak.

It is usually translated, “blessed” or “to bless another.”

It conveys the concept of offering respect for the one before whom we bow the knee.

Can anyone today recognize that, as our society displays less and less reverence for God, Christians seem to place less and less importance on a physical demonstration of their faith?

I am not telling you that you have to kneel when you pray.

But I am saying that we ought to kneel to pray at least sometimes.

II. TO WHOM HE PRAYED

Ephesians 3:14-15 (KJV)

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,

Did you know that there is a whole “thing” that is debated about to which one of the Person’s of the Godhead we should direct our prayers?

There are literally those who consider it heresy to pray to anyone of the Godhead except the Father.

My understanding of prayer is that we may and ought to pray to each of the three Persons of the Godhead, depending upon the subject of our prayer:

·   God the Father planned our salvation

·   God the Son paid for our salvation and

·   God the Holy Spirit performs our salvation

Therefore in the strictest sense,

·   When my prayer concerns matters of eternity I pray to the Father

·   When my prayer concerns matter of purity I pray to the Son and

·   When my prayer concerns matters of security I pray to the Holy Spirit

But in the most practical sense I appeal to Romans 8:26 (KJV)

Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

I take it as truth that “we know not what we should pray for as we ought” and I just pray, asking God’s Spirit to direct my prayer where it ought to go.

Paul describes God the Father very particularly.

He is

A. The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ

The God Paul prayed to is not the god Muslims pray to.

Muslims claim that Allah can have no Son.

Don’t let:

·   The compromisers and

·   The compassionate and

·   The calloused and

·   The cowardly

In some way pressure you into thinking we can get along with Islam because it is just a different way to worship the same God.

Rick Warren’s[1] compromise with Islam is only a precursor to a myriad of others compromising their Christian faith in exactly the same way.[2]

The god of Islam and the God of Apostle Paul are not the same Gods.

·   Allah had no son

·   Paul prayed to “the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

B. Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named

So, while the god of Islam and the God of Paul are not the same, the God of Paul is the God who saves people throughout the whole world.

·   A Muslim is not my brother, but a Pakistani can be

·   A Muslim is not my brother, but an Iranian can be

·   A Muslim is not my brother, but an Iraqi can be

·   A Muslim is not my brother, but a Turk can be

You see, my family is made up of people from around the globe. Anyone who has named the name of Christ as Saviour.

And finally notice with me

III. FOR WHAT HE PRAYED

Ephesians 3:16-19 (KJV)

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 comprehend 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 with all the fulness of God.

Remember the motivation for this prayer.

Ephesians 3:13-14 (KJV)

Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

He desires that they not faint

So he prays…

A. That they would be strengthened with God’s might

Ephesians 3:16 (KJV)

That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;

I notice first that the habitation of the strength that will keep us from fainting is in the inner man and not the outer man.

It’s not a show.

It’s not how you look on the outside

I notice secondly that the source of the strength is by His Spirit.

·   It doesn’t come from how we behave.

·   It comes from whom. God’s Spirit has made us to be.

I am not a Calvinist is the least, but I think the Calvinists have it right in their final affirmation of faith which is The Perseverance of the Saints

The saved person perseveres until the end. He doesn’t faint because the nature of the Holy Spirit has created him in such a way that he can’t faint.

Then he prayed

B. That Christ would dwell in their hearts by faith

Ephesians 3:17 (KJV)

That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith…

Let me throw out a couple of terms right now:

·   Positional and

·   Experiential

Paul, we know, wrote this letter to a church filled with saved people. He said so in chapter’s one and two.

So positionally Christ already dwelt in their hearts by faith.

He was there, He would never leave them and He promised it to be so.

But experientially they might not sense His presence.

Have you ever been there?

You know the promise of the Bible. You know that you got saved. You know that God keeps His promises so you know you will go to heaven when you die. But at that very moment, you feel like He is a million miles away.

Can you see how these Christians, upon learning of Paul’s imprisonment might have felt like Christ was a million miles away?

Paul’s prayer for them is that they would sense experientially what they all knew was true postionally.

Finally Paul prayed

C. That they might be filled with all the fullness of God

Ephesians 3:17b-19 (KJV)

that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,

May be able to comprehend 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 with all the fulness of God.

I see in these verses a progression.

It reminds me of filling a vessel or a bowl.

·   You are rooted in love and then

·   You are grounded in love and then

·   You comprehend what all the saints do about

·   The breadth and the

·   Length and the

·   Depth and the

·   Height after that

·   You know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge

Until you are finally

·   filled with all the fulness of God.

I don’t think it happens over night.

It probably has to happen over a lifetime.

But it is this filling with the fullness of God that enables you to not faint in tribulation.

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[1] Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven philosophy has permeated churches, especially the Southern Baptists but, unfortunately, including a great many Independent Baptist churches. What this means is that, though these churches would likely not now buy into Warren’s “Chrislam” since they have bought into some of Warren’s teachings it is very likely future generations will buy into more of it – Chrislam included

[2] http://www.exposingchrislam.com/, accessed August 13, 2016