Priority of Prayer

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INTRODUCTION
Some of you will remember the first message I preached this year. I reminded the church of the importance of prayer and more specifically, praying together. It is my belief that this is such an important practice of believers that I?ve committed to preaching on prayer until I?m convinced (or until the Holy Spirit tells me otherwise) that the we as a church understand the importance of prayer and demonstrate that in our individual and corporate lives.

Today, I?m going to begin a series that looks at the prayers the apostle Paul prayed for the churches that he had planted and shepherded and through them I hope we learn to see not only the need for prayer, but also the benefit of prayer in our life.

This year there are going to be many opportunities given for being involved in prayer. We currently have our Thursday night Power Hour beginning at 7:30pm and ending around 8:30pm. There is a Prayer Team meeting together regularly to pray for the Zimbabwe 2007 STM team. There is pre-service prayer here at HPC beginning at 9:15am and continues right through until the beginning of service in the fellowship room. You can join in with us at any time during that hour. Following Easter we are going to be setting aside 50 days of fasting and prayer that leads up to Pentecost (more info will be coming about that at a later date) and we will be experimenting with alternate times of corporate prayer throughout the year.

All this simply because we recognize that prayer is the thermometer of the church! Unless we pray, we will never experience the fullness of what God wants to do in and through us as a body of believers. The success of anything we do is determined by the fervency of our prayer life!

With that said, one problem people have with prayer is a wrong view of what it?s all about. In other words a lack of understanding what prayer is.

Put simply, prayer is communication with God. Now think about that statement for a moment. Let it sink in. Prayer is communication with God! The creator of the universe, the one who holds all power in His hands, One who is far more powerful than any King, President, Emperor, or Prime Minister in all of history! Prayer is communication with Him! What an incredible privilege!

Today we are going to look at Paul?s prayer for the church at Ephesus and draw from it some lessons we can learn and apply to our lives.

FOCUS ? PRAYER SEES GOD IN HIS PROPER POSITION

The first lesson we can learn is that prayer sees God in His proper position.

It is interesting to note that Paul mentioned his kneeling before God the Father. In his day, the common practice was to stand with your hands outstretched and your face pointed toward God or lay prone on the ground. Kneeling represents an attitude of submission or humility before God. It also recognizes God as the protector and provider of His children.

In speaking of God?s role as Father, Paul is helping us see who God is and who we are not.

Our first priority in prayer is to focus on God.

RESOLVE

Prayer strengthens us in our inner being to be prepared for the conflicts of the day. To be strengthened is to ?be strong to overcome resistance?. In other words, the idea is that God?s Spirit gives us the strength to overcome the daily challenges of life. God, through the Holy Spirit, gives us ?power? for dynamic living. His power is meant to change the focus of our lives from the trivial to the eternal.

It is only God?s power that is able to accomplish this. It is not self-esteem, it is not some sort of good-feeling mantra, but is a dwelling of the Spirit of God in our lives that changes things.

A prayerful focus on God, give us resolve in our hearts to face life.

INTIMACY

I have said it before and I will say it again. God desires to have an intimate, personal relationship with you. What does that mean? What does it mean to say God desires intimacy with us, or to have a personal relationship with us? So often we say those words but never really think of what it actually means. What it means is that God wants us to know Him as He knows us. It means He wants to us to talk with Him and share experiences with Him and for us to invite Him to talk to us and share His experiences with us. It means that He wants us to begin now what we will experience in full when we attain heaven in the afterlife.

However, the key to this relationship with God is that it is a work of His grace, and our faith. Paul wrote earlier in his letter to the Ephesians,

Grace and faith. God?s gift and our receiving that gift. That is the key and the door to having that kind of intimate relationship that God so desires with each one of us.

Then of course in his prayer Paul indicates that Christ dwells in our hearts through faith in Him. The picture here is not one of Christ as simply a guest, but Christ being at home in us. The idea that He makes His dwelling with us.

Paul also prays that we would be rooted and established in love. ?Rooted? is a biological term which refers to a plant that has sent its roots deep and wide in the ground in such a way as it has become a part of that ground. It is not simply planted, but it is rooted. Gardeners understand that whenever you transplant a bush, or a tree, or a flower you hope and work for that plant to ?take root? in the ground in which it?s planted. In the late summer and this past fall, Kerryanne and I (with the help of Deb Brick! Thanks Deb!) worked feverishly to finish off the work we were doing on our front yard. Part of that process was transplanting a small tree (I don?t even know what it?s called!) to a spot we had prepared for it in the front yard. We planted it fine. But in order for it to have a chance of taking root we had to keep watering it and watering it, and watering it. Well, we had to keep it well watered! We knew that if it didn?t develop deep and wide roots that it wouldn?t survive and would quickly wither.

In using this terminology then Paul is giving a picture of how the depth of love in our lives. ?Established? is an architectural term. It is the laying of a foundation of love. Put together then Paul in his prayer is saying Christ is to so fill our lives that we grow deep in love and build up on the foundation of love in Him!

UNDERSTANDING

Ultimately, God desires for us to know all the love He has to offer and to be channels through which His love flows. Friends, we can never fully grasp the extent and capacity of God?s love, but He desires to fill us to the rim with His love for us. He desires to demonstrate His love in our lives so that we experientially know Him and in turn overflow with His love towards others.

However, far too often our lives are filled with all kinds of things that take our time and attention away from God. Let me share with you something that might help you to visualize this:

So what do you think this demonstrates? If this is true then how should our lives change when it comes to prayer? Should not prayer be the first activity of our day? Should not prayer be the first scheduled activity in our calendars? Here?s a simple action step that I?ll challenge you with. Take 15 minutes at the start of your day (that?s it! 15 minutes!) and pray. Do that for a month and see if your focus is not more Christ centered. I?ve heard Bill Hybels say that he makes a point of the first part of his body to hit the floor in the morning be His knees because if its his feet he starts the day running. Sounds like a good idea to me! Will you take up this challenge? Now, one more thing. Please let me know how it works for you ? share about any noticeable change in your life by simply taking 15 minutes at the start of your day to pray. You can either email stories@gohpc.net or drop a note in the box by my office but let me know ? I?d love to hear about what God is doing.

Worship

Finally we finish with the bookend of this prayer from Paul and the lessons we can learn from it. We began with a focus on God and are brought to the point of worship.

Notice Paul inserts in His prayer this insightful observation that God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. Think about that statement for a moment. I have no doubt there are some pretty imaginative people here and there are probably some pretty big things that we could ask of God. But what Paul is pointing out is that no matter what you imagine or how big is the thing that you ask God is able to do more than that ? in fact, God is able to do so much more than that that you couldn?t even measure it. You wouldn?t be able to describe it.

But listen, that mind-boggling insight is dwarfed by what Paul says next. Paul says God is able to do ?immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine??how? According to His power? His power ? and then Paul says through His power that right now is at work within us. Wow! Paul draws the connection between the incredible power and majesty of God, the depth of His love, His desire for an intimate relationship with us through His gift of grace and our receiving of that gift through faith and then the understanding that His power is at work within us! No wonder Paul ends with worship in saying, ?To Him be glory?forever and ever!? Further, Paul includes the fact that his glory may be seen in the church ? that is in His people ? why? Because His power is at work within us!

Friends, the first priority of prayer is focus and worship of God. When we pray it isn?t about ourselves, it isn?t primarily about the problems in the world, the focus is first on God! It is through prayer that we build that intimate relationship with God and begin to grasp the depth of His love for us and the reality of His dwelling amongst us. Along with the realization through prayer comes the demonstration of His power at work in and through us as He makes Himself known in His fullness!

CONCLUSION
Two things I want to mention in concluding this message.

1. If we as Christians focus on God in our prayers and fit everything else in around that time with Him then truly we cannot begin to imagine what He will do. What we thought we knew will be blown away by what God demonstrates through the power released through fervent prayer. The tough question that reveals where our hearts is though is, ?Do you really want it? Do you really want to see God move in such a powerful way? Do you really want to fit other things around God or do you want to fit God in with other things?

2. Prayer is really something that is only fully understood and experienced in the life of someone who knows Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour. The reality is that for most people outside of the family of God prayer is an abstract mantra or SOS line that helps in a pinch but doesn?t have practical everyday use. Frankly, the Bible is also clear unless we are right with God and humble our hearts before Him ? He won?t hear what we pray.

Lest anyone feel they don?t fit in the category of the wicked Romans 3:23 is pretty clear that?

However, the Bible is also equally clear that when a person turns their hearts to God in the full realization of their sin and the gift of God?s grace through Jesus Christ and His death on the cross for our sin. That when we believe Jesus rose again victorious over death and sin and is indeed alive today. When we humble ourselves before God ? the Bible says that prayer is the first and most powerful privilege we can enjoy in our new life in Christ and certainly God hears us.

If you don?t know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour this morning I invite you to join with me as I pray?