Rev. John Fowler July 20, 2003

Ephesians 3:14-21

The Apostle Paul is writing to, not only to the Christians at Ephesus, but to Churches in the surrounding area. It is a time of Nero’s persecution. Paul is in prison, but he is writing a word and a prayer of encouragement. If you have ever been discouraged or know someone who is discouraged, it is important to pray, and to pray this prayer of encouragement. I wanted to begin with Chapter 3, Verse 1, where Paul begins his prayer— then he interrupts it. He says:

and then he stops his prayer and begins to share with them why he is in prison in the first place. He is in prison because of his faith in Jesus Christ, and he wants to assure them that God is using his imprisonment for the gospel. And that is why from Verse 13 to Verse 21 he says:

It is almost two years ago, on August 3, 2001, when several missionaries were taken captive by the Taliban. Two of them are Dayna Curry and Heather Mercer. They were not very well known at the time. They were working for Shelter Now International, a Christian organization out of Germany. They spent time feeding the hungry, helping the widows, teaching in the schools, putting Christ’s love into action. But they were taken captive. Their crime was sharing Christ with the Muslims although all they had really done was to show the Jesus Video on a laptop computer.

The next hundred and five days were difficult days of imprisonment. Heather Mercer shares that, especially the first month and a half, it was quite a battle of fear and worry and discouragement, as you can imagine. She feared for her life, feared that she would spend the rest of her life in prison, feared the unknown. Until finally, she remembered that verse from Jesus who had said that if you want to find your life, you need to lose it.

So she decided, “Well, if I am going to lose my life, I might as well go ahead and do it.” And she did, and a power began to come into her life as she began to trust God more. As they said, in prison, they didn’t have a lot more else to do, so they really prayed, and they sang hymns, hymns that they made up, based on the scriptures. And then, miraculously, they were set free.

They were normal ladies, because before they went before the press, they insisted they have their hair done. They wouldn’t meet with them without that. But now, they have a different platform, but they don’t like to draw attention to themselves, these former students of Baylor University, from Waco, Texas. They just especially believed that God had used this very discouraging time to draw attention to the need for Christ in Afghanistan, for the harsh conditions, and they know from their experience that God, from this discouraging time, brought encouragement, especially through prayer and the love of other Christian believers.

The Apostle Paul certainly knew about discouragement and he knew what it was to be in prison. He faced very discouraging times, but he knew from his own experience how God had encouraged him, how brothers and sisters in Christ had encouraged him; and so when he makes this prayer, he is praying from his own experience; and he is praying that the brothers and sisters in Christ outside of prison, who especially now would be going through persecution, would be encouraged to be faithful, and to do the will of the Lord.

Do you know someone who is discouraged today; someone that you need to pray for; someone who has had a setback? Life is pretty hard to them right now. It may you. It works both ways. It works in praying for yourself; it works in praying for others. But it is a wonderful prayer of encouragement from the Apostle Paul that has three parts to it.

The first one is a prayer for spiritual power. Paul says it this way in Ephesians 3:16:

The Apostle Paul knew about encouragement, especially. I believe he learned it from Barnabas. You have to remember: Paul was converted. He was a persecutor of the Christian faith. They didn’t really welcome him into the family of God right away. But Barnabas, who was known as the Son of Encouragement, was one who stuck with him. He was his mentor and led him along the way in learning the ways of Christ and welcoming him. Jesus knew that the greatest need of his disciples before he ascended was to be ready for the power of the Holy Spirit. That’s why before he ascended he said:

And so, that was the great need, for them to wait in the city until they were clothed with power from on high.

I believe that one of the greatest causes of discouragement is this lack of spiritual power. And often times it comes from us—busy beavers, busy bees—working hard and not realizing that we need more spiritual power to do what God has called us to do. Elijah, was very effective for God, confronted the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel, but became very, very depressed. Why? Because he over extended himself. He did it, so much in his own strength, and it was only through prayer and resting that God could encourage him and bring him out of that time.

It’s called “A Board Meeting in Hell”. And according to this Board Meeting in Hell, when the Devil is getting together with all of his Demons, at the top of his agenda is this one Demon who used to be on their side but has changed sides; he has been dramatically converted to Christ. And not only is he converted, but he is going out and sharing what God has done in his life. It really does bother the Devil because it is doing a lot of damage to the kingdom of darkness. And so, they are trying to come up with strategies about what to do with this fellow. He is just causing all kinds of problems.

And they said, “Well, first of all, let’s try to lure him back to ways of sin and how wonderful they are.”

And then they said, “No, he’s had that life. He’s had a lot of that and he knows that that just doesn’t work.”

Then, another raised his hand and said, “ Well, let’s give him a lot of money, make sure he makes a lot of money and all the things he can have with that.”

But they said, “No, he’s been rich. He’s been wealthy and he knows that’s not going to make you happy.”

And there is a long pause and finally one raises his hand and says, “I know. Let’s discourage his soul.”

And the Devil nods his head and says, “Yes, that will work.” It’s one of the greatest tools of the enemy — to discourage us. When he can do that, the spiritual power begins to wane in our lives.

D. L Moody was fortunate that someone caught on to the fact that, even though he was effective for the Lord, they could sense that it was just a matter of time that discouragement was going to come to this busy, popular evangelist, the Billy Graham of the nineteenth century.

He noticed in one of his meetings that there were two ladies down front who were not necessarily listening attentively to his sermon. They had their eyes closed and they were praying, and it bothered him. He felt like: What are you’all doing?

And they said, “Well, we’re praying….for you.” And that bothered him.

He said, “Why aren’t you praying for some of those other sinners out there? Why are you praying for me?” You could tell, his pride was certainly coming forth.

And they said, “Because you need the power of the spirit.” Well, that bothered him.

And so finally he humbled himself and wanted to meet with them, and said, “Well, I thought I understood about the power of the spirit. Can you share more of what you know about that?”

So they just shared, very simply, right out of the New Testament, about the power of the Holy Spirit and they felt, essentially that, you could tell that he was doing a whole lot of things in his own strength — very effective, great speaker, lot of salesmanship — but lacking spiritual power. So they prayed for him. Nothing happened — until a week later — when he was walking down the street and he felt such joy. The Lord came upon him and he could hardly stand it; he couldn’t contain it. And his sermons didn’t really change after that; but he changed. And no doubt, a lot of his effectiveness had to do with his learning that there is a difference between doing things just in your own strength, and cooperating and having the power of the Spirit in our lives. Paul knew that one of the greatest needs of Christians, especially going through difficult times and persecution, is the need for spiritual power.

And also it is a prayer for Christ to be at home in our hearts. Paul is not only praying for spiritual power, but as the spiritual power comes into our lives, that we are welcoming Christ into our hearts and our lives and we want him to be more than a guest and a visitor. We want him to be more than your relatives who come to see you and you are glad to see them and you may be glad to see them go as well. You know, you don’t want them to take up residence. Sometimes we do that with Christ, don’t we?

We say, “Oh, it’s fine to come a little bit, especially when I am having a hard time, and then you can go on and see someone else.” No, Christ wants to come in and live in our lives. A lot of times Paul used the expression, “to be in Christ”, to describe that experience .

In Galatians he said, I have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, it’s not I who live, but Christ who lives in me. The life I now live I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave his life for me. Paul knew that hard work would get you just so far. But he wanted to live in Christ and he wanted to be transformed by the renewing of his mind.

Jesus said it this way, Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will come in and sup with him and he with me.

It’s an old devotional classic, written by Robert Munger, I believe. My Heart— Christ’s Home. He used the imagery of our soul’s being like our house and describes the different rooms as being different compartments of our spiritual lives. The drawing room was our devotional life. That is where we meet with the Lord, specifically for the purpose of praying, reading the scriptures, and just letting Christ speak to us.

And the author writes, “Oh, it was wonderful. I would meet with the Lord every morning. We made a promise to meet together in the morning. We would come, and He would pull His book off the library shelf, and we would sit down there beside the fire, and just have unhurried time of just getting to know each other, and reading from His book.”

And it was wonderful; but as the author became more and more busy, those times became shortened, until finally he was just too busy to go into the drawing room. And so he went days, weeks, a couple of months, then he finally comes down the hallway and saw that the door was cracked and he looked in and — there was the Lord — sitting in the chair, and he was amazed.

He went in and saw the Lord and finally he said, “I am so sorry. I have not been coming. I know I should, but I’ve been really busy. If you knew my schedule …” And the Lord tells him, “ Now see, you’ve got it all wrong. You think more about what this meeting can do for you — your spiritual growth, your learning more about the scripture. But, you forget; it’s very much for me as well, because I love you. I want to spend time with you.”

If we’re too busy to pray, we’re too busy. All of us have a need to spend time with the Lord and develop this friendship with Him.

Joseph Scriven’s hymn, “What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!/ What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!” came out of great heartache. His fiancée drowned. So when he writes of Jesus as a friend, he knows Him as a friend. He knows someone who will be there for you in the very difficult times.

Oftentimes, discouragement comes when we neglect prayer. Of course, it’s very easy to feel guilty about prayer when I don’t pray enough. That’s not what I’m speaking about. I’m talking about praying when God wants you to pray, and you take the time to be with him and to receive the spiritual power, and to truly invite Christ into your heart, and into your home, and into your life, and not keep him at arm’s distance. It’s a prayer for spiritual power and for Christ to be welcome in our hearts and home.

It’s also a prayer to know the love of God. Paul said it this way:

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, 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.

What a difference it makes when someone has a fresh experience of the love of Christ. You have noticed in the Gospel of John, he refers to himself as “the Disciple whom Jesus loves.” Now, Jesus loved all of His disciples, but that is the way John liked to think of himself, because he did believe that God loved him in a great way.

Paul wrote about this in the eight chapter of Romans when he talked about the great love of God:

If God be for us, who can be against us? He said: For I believe that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation, can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Think of those things that seek to separate you from the love of Christ; that separate others from the love of Christ. It can be an illness; it can be the death of a loved one; it can be a rejection. But what happens is: We think, “Well, God if you allowed that to happen, you must not love me very much.” And it really is a crisis of faith, oftentimes. But when we take time to pray—not only for ourselves, but to pray for others—oftentimes (I know that when I am praying for healing for people, I want the disease to go, but I realize that’s a very discouraging time; pain can make you discouraged; and oftentimes you don’t know how it is going to turn out; it’s scary for the family members.) what you need to pray is that they will know that God loves them, regardless of how fast or how slow the healing is.

Four P’s that help to put this into practice — to pray for others this encouragement.

First of all, it is a Priority. I like to eat. It’s a priority. I make time for it. I’m not too busy to eat. I like to sleep. I make time for that. Every night, I make sure that I sleep. When prayer is a priority, when we actually make time to pray. For Jesus, it was a priority. Early in the morning they would be looking for him.

“Where is he?”

“Well, he’s gone off to pray.” So they would have to go hunt for him. Or Jesus would pray all night, sometimes, before major decisions.

And when it is a priority, we remember James, chapter 5. The effectual, fervent prayer of God’s people has a great power in it’s effect. And he uses the example of Elijah, who was an ordinary man. He prayed that it would not rain and it did not rain for three and a half years. And then he prayed, and the rain came.

Oftentimes, when I begin to wonder, “Well, is it really doing any good?”, I read the scriptures, and I am reminded of the priority that Jesus placed on prayer, and the priority placed on prayer by the people that God uses: Moses and David and such. It is a priority.

And the second P, you have a Place. There is a place where you go, that when you are there, it is a holy place. It may be a chair; it may be a place where you kneel. I remember discovering that the car, when you are driving, can be a place of prayer. When I was in Atlanta, and so miffed at how long it takes to get anywhere in Atlanta, in driving, commuting, until finally it dawned on me: I actually could turn off the radio, and instead of being upset about the traffic, I could pray—with my eyes open—but I could pray. And what a difference it made. It was a holy time. A place to pray. Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane.

In the Lord’s prayer, he said: And when you pray, go into your closet. You don’t have to literally go into your closet. You may not be able to get into your closet; it is so crowded, but it means privacy. A place where you can go.

There’s a priority and there’s a place, but there are People for whom you pray. You pray for every member of your family. You pray for your friends. Your pray for those you work with and you have a list of people that you pray for. You pray for the people who are especially standing in the need of prayer, and you lift them up before God and ask Him to touch them, to love them, to work in their lives. And then, finally you pray. You pray.

Daniel…….(tape change)…….in his upper room, but he would pray. People knew about that. There were people he prayed for, for sure. And yes, he prayed and ended up in the lions’ den, but God brought him forth from the lions’ den.

But you learn to pray by praying. You don’t have to wait until you are a great spiritual warrior. You just pray. And what a difference it makes in the lives of other people. Think of those people who encouraged you over the years. There was a time when you felt like you were going to quit; you were going to give up. But they were there, not only in person, but they were praying for you.

It must have been, oh, fifteen years ago, when I was going through a season of discouragement, and one of the great benefits of being a pastor of a Church is that you have a lot of people praying for you—sometimes more than I realized. And that is good. And you keep praying for me; and you pray for my family, because I need it, and they need it.

But at that time, and I can’t remember exactly why, there was a lot of sickness in the Church. There were just discouraging circumstances, but I was discouraged. And, oftentimes, it just gets a grip on you and just colors your whole countenance. You are kind of just going through the motions. You do your job, but the joy is gone, and you lack power. But, I was praying. I knew I didn’t want to stay this way. And it seemed like after a week it got better. The second week it got even better. And after about a month, it just seemed like it lifted.

I remember sharing with Liz, “You know, I’m not as discouraged as I was. I’m breaking through.”

And she just smiled and shared that she and three other women in my Church had noticed that. They had made a covenant to pray every day for their pastor or their husband, not to be discouraged, but to be encouraged. And I know it made a great difference.

When we get to heaven—I can’t figure it out mathematically—how much a difference praying makes, but I definitely want to be in the control group that is being prayed for. And you do too. And we all know people who need this prayer of encouragement. Pray it for others. Even when you are nudged to pray and you don’t know why, you just go ahead and pray it, because it will make a difference in their lives, if they discover the spiritual power that comes with Christ in their lives, and they will know the power of Christ in a mighty and magnificent way.

Let us pray.

Oh, Lord, we remember the words of the Apostle Paul:

Rejoice in the Lord always, and again, I say rejoice. That all may know your forbearance. The Lord is at hand. Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything, by prayer, with supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God, and the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

We thank you, Lord, for this blessed assurance that Jesus is mine./ Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine—we can live and sing of. And we pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen.